What are the odds?
by ElyaSol
Summary: Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results. SheppardWeir or Sparky, if you prefer
1. The well kept secret

**Title: What are the odds?**

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** I had this idea a while ago and it just wouldn't get out of my head, so I wrote it down. And it's my New Year's resolution to actually post this somewhere, so here it is. This is the first piece of fiction I have written in a long time, so any comments or suggestions would be appreciated!

**Chapter 1**** (The well kept secret)**

"So I guess Lorne's team is okay then." John Sheppard said, moving to lean against the rail overlooking the gateroom. Major Lorne's team had been 4 hours overdue from their trip to Fanolos to bring the people there medical supplies. Although a team being late was not out of the ordinary, and they had been trading with the Fanolans for a while now, Elizabeth had talked to him about organizing a search team only ten minutes ago.

"Major Lorne, we'll debrief in a half an hour." Elizabeth called down and received a nod in response. She turned at the sound of John's voice and tossed a small smile in his direction. "Yeah, no need to worry. They were late due to weather. Apparently, the stairs up to the gate get rather slippery when it rains, so they had to wait out the worst of the storm."

"Yes, well we wouldn't want anyone else to fall. It might get them suspended from gate travel for three weeks." John commented somewhat bitterly. He had fallen on a mission two days ago and broken his collar bone. Needless to say, Beckett had banned him from missions.

"John, you know that Carson is only looking out for you and your team. It's not his fault that you usually get into trouble off-world which would likely result in much further injury to your arm. Besides, I'm letting you explore the city, provided that you behave yourself." During this little speech John had followed Elizabeth back to her office and now flopped down into one of the chairs near her desk.

"I don't even get a cast, just this sling, so it looks like I haven't really been injured." He continued to complain.

"I don't think the absence of a cast is going to make people doubt that you were really injured. I mean, they do know you." Elizabeth said, failing to hide a smile.

"Now that is just mean. I never pegged you for someone who picked on the wounded, Elizabeth. Besides, chicks dig a cast."

"Oh, they do, do they?" Elizabeth grinned back at him.

"Oh yes." John smirked.

"Well, I guess…"

Their conversation was cut off by a scream in the gateroom, causing both to run to the balcony. John instinctively held out his uninjured arm to prevent Elizabeth from getting in front of him as they reached the railing. However, when they looked down, the proposed danger was actually quite humorous. Ronon was carrying Teyla, fireman-style, through the gateroom while she was kicking and yelling at him. John heard Elizabeth let out a small giggle.

"See, now this is how bets get started." John muttered to himself. "You know being stuck on Atlantis might be more interesting than I originally thought."

"Maybe we should intervene" offered Elizabeth, watching Ronon and Teyla exit the gateroom in much same manner they had entered.

"Nah, I think stopping Ronon would involve me further 'injuring my arm.' And it's not like Teyla can't kick his ass if she needs to. I'll go talk to them to see what brought on this little display later, and remind them that the gateroom is not for play." He added the last part with a mock serious face.

Now that the commotion had died down, they moved back into the office, Elizabeth to wait for Lorne and John because he had nothing better to do at the moment. Elizabeth sat down behind her desk and started working. John resumed his chair and began playing a game, a cross between chess and checkers that Elizabeth had received from one of their allies. Enjoying the comfortable sounds of Elizabeth's typing, he set out for the battle of Team John versus Team Sheppard.

"John, what did you mean about bets?" Elizabeth broke the silence a few minutes later, looking up from her laptop.

John resisted the urge to look at her and more slowly moved the tiles. "I said rumors. You know how rumors can run wild around here."

"No, I distinctly remember that you said bets."

"Well, maybe I meant rumors."

"Really"

"Umm…," John glanced up and got caught in Elizabeth's curious gaze. He sighed and tried to think of the best way to put things. "Well, it seems that occasionally…"

"Are you ready for the briefing Dr. Weir?" Major Lorne entered the office and looked up from a handful of papers, oblivious to the discussion he had interrupted. "I can come back later if you and Colonel Sheppard are in the middle of something."

"Nope, that's not necessary Major, I was just thinking that McKay had wanted me to look at some ancient technology this afternoon anyway." John jumped up out of his chair, nodded at Lorne and Elizabeth, and made his way to Rodney's lab. _That was close, maybe Elizabeth will just drop it._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth closed her laptop and stretched, grimacing slightly when she felt her back pop. It had been a long afternoon, well, actually evening as she noted that the clock read past eight. It by far wasn't the latest she had ever worked, but after the nanite incident, she tried to take better care of herself, otherwise John and Carson would start to harass her about her health. It also seemed that in recent weeks things had calmed down a little, giving her a bit more time to relax, which in itself was kind of worrisome.

As she was tidying up her desk, Elizabeth noticed John's unfinished game of stricle on the side table. Remembering their conversation, she had to wonder what John was going to say before Lorne interrupted. The look on his face indicated that he was wary of her response or in the least didn't really want to tell her what he had been about to reveal. That and the fact that he had left the room to voluntarily be Rodney's guinea pig suggested that the news, whatever it was, wasn't going to be good.

Elizabeth left her office and smiled at Chuck, the gate tech. "Has Colonel Sheppard been by recently?"

"No, Dr. Weir. I haven't seen him since earlier this afternoon."

"Alright, have a good night then." She would definitely be tracking John down after dinner to finish their talk.

While eating, she reflected on the events of the afternoon and John's comments. The only conclusion she could come up with was that there were bets being placed in Atlantis…about Ronon and Teyla…and perhaps other people. While that was a little unusual, it seemed like a natural progression from the rumors that sometimes circulated Atlantis. Its like the dark side, she thought while finishing her jello, events lead to rumors, rumors lead to bets, and bets lead to….she really would have to talk to John about forgoing the last two weeks of Star Wars movie night.

After dinner, Elizabeth spent the better part of a half hour looking before she found John. She had checked their balcony, his quarters, Rodney's lab, the infirmary, and was on her way to the gym when she noticed a shadowy figure out on a balcony in the western part of the city. John turned toward her as she opened the door.

"Hey"

"Hey. Have you been running?" She asked, taking in his damp T-shirt and running pants.

"Yeah, Beckett said it wouldn't stress the break. And since I can't carry a P-90, I figure I should get better at running away. Just in case danger presents itself while I'm exploring the city," he quickly added with his best innocent face.

"Riiiight. So about what we were talking about earlier." Elizabeth crossed the balcony so she was standing in front of John and caught his eyes. "You said bet."

"Yes"

"And you meant bet?"

"Yes," John sighed.

She had maintained eye contact with John this entire time and noticed that there were increasing traces of wariness in his hazel eyes with each question. "So, it seems that occasionally…what John?"


	2. The bets

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Please let me know what you think!!! I have the story mostly written, but its been a while since I've written anything remotely creative.

**Chapter 2**** (The bets)**

John broke away from Elizabeth's gently piercing gaze. Sometimes he forgot she was a diplomat and didn't really have to try all that hard to draw things out of people. Not that he would ever lie to her, but he really didn't want to tell her about all of this. _Enough stalling_, he thought as he ran a hand through is hair, maybe it wasn't as big of a deal as he thought it was. He would answer her questions, and just wouldn't volunteer all the information he had. That decision made, he leaned against the balcony rail, crossed his arms and brought his eyes back to Elizabeth's, noticing that she now looked rather worried.

"Oh Elizabeth, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you, its just the whole thing might be a little…." He paused searching for a harmless sounding word, while gesturing with one hand, "..surprising to hear about."

"Uh-huh," She answered, sounding unconvinced.

"So, it seems that occasionally some members of this expedition have bets on other members of the expedition." John said in a rush, watching for Elizabeth's reaction. To his surprise she didn't seem shocked.

"John, I gathered that much when I rehashed our conversation during dinner."

"Well, then you figured it out, so if there's nothing else I should probably-" He said with false cheerfulness until Elizabeth interrupted him.

"While I don't exactly approve of this behavior, I don't see why you were dreading telling me about a few harmless wagers between co-workers."

"Yeah, well you see…" Despite his earlier resolve to only answer her questions, he now found it hard to conceal the whole operation from her, especially while she was looking at him like that. _Stupid diplomat thing_. He drew in a deep breath and said, "Its not just a few wagers."

"Okay," She replied with a raise of her eyebrows, inviting further clarification.

"Its kind of a large betting pool."

"Oh." Elizabeth moved to stand next to him at the edge of the balcony and faced the ocean. "So, what is the nature of this gambling ring we have?"

John noticed she had started to sound a little uncomfortable and decided to spare her some further questions, by answering this latest one as completely as he could. "Most of the junior personnel, including some on the Daedalus, have bets running on practically all of the senior staff and senior personnel in Atlantis and on Daedalus. People wager items for dates by which they will think certain events will happen, and the person closest to the correct date 'Price-Is-Right' style wins. Most of the items for wager are candy, coffee, or soda. When things happen new events are added to the pool." He stopped talking and glanced at Elizabeth standing next to him.

"Price-Is-Right style?"

"Oh, closest without going over." Well, that wasn't the question he thought she would ask.

"This seems really well organized." Elizabeth said, sounding a little dazed.

"Well, when you get some of the best minds in the world together and put them in almost weekly death defying situations, I guess they need some outlet." John replied. Elizabeth was taking this better that he thought she would.

"And how did you find out about this? Are you one of the organizers, John?" She asked turning toward him once again.

_Still not the bad question, maybe I can get past that one tonight and have time to regroup for another round of interrogation_. "No, I found out about it after the Wraith tried to destroy the city, the first time. A couple weeks later I caught Chuck talking to some people and saw the score-sheet. After some persuasion on my part, he told me about it, which quite possible only made things worse for myself. Anyway, I thought it was better that someone keep an eye on things, so he keeps me apprised of the goings on, provided I don't try to affect the results. I also don't report anything that I know to him. Since then I've found out that the other two organizers are one of Beckett's nurses and the cook. When you think about it that pretty much covers the most interesting areas of the city."

"So we have a city of gamblers, led by a triumvirate of spies." Elizabeth sounded shocked, but so far not angry.

"Yeah, although to be fair everyone kind of is a spy, the organizers just seem to be the best informed. I don't think they're doing it out of disrespect or malice. If anything they almost seem to be cheering people on." John shrugged and then realized that in his effort to reassure Elizabeth, who looked like she might be getting used to the idea, he had let something slip that could lead to the questions he was avoiding.

"How is this cheering people on?"

"Well, one of the bets was when Kavanaugh was going to be shipped back to Earth… Which really is more like cheering everyone else on, but you get the idea."

Elizabeth smiled slightly at this. "What is the nature of most of the bets? Are most of them about events like that, or something else."

John could swear she already knew the answer to that question by the way she looked back out at the ocean after she asked it. _Well __here we go_ _there is no going back now_. "Ah, no….I'd say most of the bets involve…romantically linking members of the expedition." That was as delicately as he could think to put it, and the reason he had threatened Chuck when he saw the list, the fact that Elizabeth was 'romantically linked' to several people. Now, he liked to view it as people wanted her to have some happiness. It was better than the John Sheppard-Alien woman bet or the John Sheppard-Rodney McKay bet.

"So Ronon and Teyla's display in the gateroom today would start or further an already exisiting bet about them?"

"Yes."

"Are there any such bets about me?"

"There are bets about everyone Elizabeth." _And here is where everything goes to hell_.

"I didn't ask you about everyone, I asked you about me. Who am I 'romantically linked' to, John?" She asked quietly, still not looking at him but now rather at the stars.

"Yeah…..maybe you don't want to know that. When I found out about all of this it made me a little paranoid until I got used to the idea, so you could just skip that and try to live in denial." John offered, trying one last time to weasel out of answering.

"John," Elizabeth turned to face him and pin him once again with a look.

"Okay, well…" He started uncomfortably and then continued in a quieter voice, "…there are bets on you and, ah…Rodney, Zelenka, Ronon, Lorne, and me." He finished having faltered a little with the last one.

Elizabeth had blushed more with each name, until she was now rather red. She broke eye contact and said in a clipped tone, "Well, thanks for the information. I think I'm going to go to bed now. Good night John," and then left the balcony before he could stop her.

John was left watching her retreat through the balcony doors, worried about her reaction. _I should have just lied to her. I knew this whole thing would probably weird her out_. Unfortunately, for reasons that he often didn't want to consider, intending to lie to Elizabeth Weir and actually doing it were two different things for him.


	3. Elizabeth's thoughts

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying this so far. Here's the next installment...

**Chapter 3****- Elizabeth's thoughts**

To say the Elizabeth was surprised by the thoroughness and ingenuity of her employees was an understatement. When she considered the situation at dinner she had honestly thought it was just a few bets between individuals, not the Pegasus Galaxy version of Las Vegas. John is right, she thought, this is what comes from a group of very intelligent people.

Elizabeth sighed and sank down onto her bed. After leaving the balcony she had practically run back to her room. _If anyone from the betting poo__l had seen me, they probably would have thought something had just happened_. This thought led her to the realization that virtually everything she did could be construed to support a bet. Well maybe not anything, just the out-of-ordinary events that were rather frequent in Atlantis._ And __**this**__ is what John meant by paranoid_, she concluded.

Even though she wanted to put the entire situation out of her mind, as she got ready for bed, her thoughts kept returning to her discussion with John. He honestly seemed to believe that there was nothing malicious going on and she trusted his judgment. But how was she not supposed to take this rather extensive interest in her personal life as anything other than disrespect. If the expedition members could speculate wildly about her, how could any of them take her seriously?

Then she remembered her time in graduate school. Stuck with virtually the same group of people for 5 or so years had led to a lot of gossip, rumors, and even the occasional bet between the grad students. Most of their speculations involved the other studemts and faculty members. One of her roommates had been a chemistry doctoral candidate and claimed that it was even worse in their department because everyone was at work doing experiments, rather than more independent research in the library. That, and they had a darkroom to catch couples in. In any case, despite the rampant speculation, Elizabeth and her peers did respect their professors. Gossiping had just been a way to distract themselves from the pressures of school. Not to mention that the long days tended to make them all a little loopy.

Feeling a slightly better, the only other thing she had to wonder about was why they had connected her with five different men. That seemed a _bit_ excessive. She decided to put off thinking about the men in question. It probably wouldn't lead to anything good and would only make things more uncomfortable the next time she saw any of them.

Elizabeth glanced at her clock and realized that the whole situation had her so distracted she had gone to bed really early. It was only 10:30 and she wasn't that tired. Resolving to put the entire situation out of her mind, she picked up a mystery novel off the bed side table and started to read.

Around midnight, Elizabeth gave up on her book. She had read only 60 pages, and somehow had entirely missed the second murder, which she only realized had happened when the autopsy was being performed. Sighing, she decided that getting a cup of hot chocolate might calm her down. After pulling a sweater on over her tank top and slipping on some shoes, she headed for the mess hall.

The city was pretty deserted at this time of night, so Elizabeth only passed a few people on her way. She nodded at those she passed, but couldn't help but wonder if they were in on the gambling ring. She was just going to have to get used to the whole thing. Somehow she doubted that breaking up the gambling ring would do any good. They most likely would just start another one and keep it better hidden, which was probably why John hadn't shut the thing down in the first place when he found out.

With these final thoughts, Elizabeth turned the last corner to the mess hall and ran into a wall, a Ronin-shaped wall that conveniently grabbed her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

"Sorry Dr. Weir, you came around the corner and I wasn't paying attention," Ronin apologized with a degree of amusment in his tone as he removed his hands after steadying her.

Elizabeth felt herself start to blush as she faced Bachelor #3. "Actually, I wasn't really watching where I was going either." Ronin was looking at her strangely (or was that her imagination), so she said the first thing that came to mind, "Did Colonel Sheppard talk to you and Teyla about the gateroom today?"

"Yeah, it wasn't a big deal. We didn't mean to wander into the gateroom. Teyla and I got into an argument and I was proving a point." Ronin said, smirking slightly as if remembering the argument.

"Well, okay then. Good night, Ronin."

"Night." And with that Ronon left her in the doorway of the mess hall.

_Well, that could have gone better. Its too bad I just can't hide in my room for a day or so_, she thought wistfully.


	4. Bridge club

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** This chapter isn't one of my favorites, but it's kind of necessary to explain how everything works. Enjoy!

**Chapter 4****- Bridge Club**

The next morning Elizabeth woke up too late to really reflect on her evening. She had the afternoon off, but had a monthly morning briefing with a large amount of the staff. They had recently lost a ZPM and Rodney's intergalactic gate-highway was starting to come to fruition, which meant there was a shift in focus and a lot of rescheduling and coordinating between departments that needed to be done. Elizabeth hurriedly showered and dressed. She rushed to her office, picked up the files she needed, and was one of the last people to arrive in the conference room.

All the events of the previous night came rushing back when Elizabeth saw who she was sitting in between- John and Rodney. And as she looked around the room, she noticed that Lorne, Zelenka, and Ronin were there as well. Stunned by this, it took her a moment to respond to John's comment that they should wait to start until Let. Robinson joined them.

"All right. I'll be back in a few minutes. I need coffee for this." She muttered the last part under her breath. _It's like being in the dating game_, she thought as she quickly made her way to the mass hall and back. Fortunately, years of diplomatic training had made her pretty successful at hiding her emotions, so she should be able to get through the meeting just fine. With any luck no one, except maybe John and Rodney, would notice that she was any different.

------------------------------------

As people filed out of the room after the meeting, Elizabeth looked down a stack of reports and decided that an afternoon off would have to wait. They were sending a transmission to the Daedalus the day after tomorrow before they were out of range on a trip back to Earth. She needed to go over everyone's reports and prepare several of her own for the SGC.

John was one of the last to leave the conference room. On his way out he stopped and asked somewhat hesitantly, "Want to go to lunch?"

"No, I think I'll start going through these and just eat in my office." She replied not quite maintaining eye contact with him.

"Okay, well you might want to take a look at my report first. It might help you get through some of the others faster." Saying this, John put his folder on top of the pile.

As Elizabeth now sat at her desk she thought about John's last statement. She couldn't fathom how a report on reassigning military personnel to explore Atlantis would help her through the rest. Out of curiosity she decided to in fact start with his report. Opening the dark blue folder, the first thing she saw was a white type-written page with a sticky-note in the center:

_E- _

_Thought this might interest you._

_-J_

Removing the sticky-note, she was surprised by the content of the page, and once again struck by the thoroughness of her employees.

* * *

Welcome! You have been selected to be a member of Bridge Club, founded in 1978 at the University of Toronto. You now have the privilege of participating in a "sociological exercise" that seeks to interpret and predict the actions of others. As an incentive, small wagers or prizes will be awarded for correct guesses on predicted events. 

Predicted events will be declared by the executive committee of the club. An event may be added to the predicted event list if it is proposed by a significant number of members of the club. Your predictions on any or all of these events must be registered with a member of the executive committee.

Following are the rules of Bridge club. Please follow all rules to maintain the club for yourself and all of its members. In addition, violation of the rules could result in disciplinary action of University authorities against members of bridge club or participants in predicted events.

1. Do not talk about Bridge Club to any non-approved member.

2. Members of Bridge Club may not be the subject of a predicted event.

3. Directly influencing the results of a predicted event through suggestion, innuendo, or sharing of information with its participants is not allowed.

4. Influencing a predicted event through physical means is not allowed.

5. Spying by means of electronic or visual surveillance is not permitted.

6. Reporting any observations to authorities is not permitted.

Have fun!

* * *

Well, it turned out that John was right, this did answer some of her questions about the Atlantis gambling ring. Especially with regards to how far they would go for a bet. She was a little curious if this club had actually existed at the University of Toronto or if this was simply a way of hiding the rules for the Atlantis version of the club in plain sight. Resolving again to put the issue out of her mind, Elizabeth started going through the pile of reports. 


	5. The limit of five

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season.

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Okay, so here is where the plot starts to move along a bit more, hopefully. Thanks for continuing to read!

**Chapter 5- The limit of five**

Elizabeth walked out onto the balcony after the long day to relax with a cup of coffee. She had made her way through most of the reports. The only ones left were directly related to Rodney's experiments and she wanted to have a fresh mind to look at those in the morning.

As Elizabeth leaned against the railing and peered down into her coffee cup, her thoughts turned back to the Atlantis gambling ring. The flyer John had passed along did help, and now she felt a little better about the whole thing. Atleast she knew that people weren't grossly interfering in their lives for the sake of betting. And with all the tension and pressure every expedition member was under she could _almost_ be glad that they had some sort of activity to keep them sane. As long as the IOA didn't find out. She also could get used to the fact that people were observing her interactions with others, partly because she had always been aware that as leader of the city, the expedition members would likely take cues from her behavior. So the one issue she was left to work through was the men in question, and really _that_ was the issue she didn't want to deal with.

At that moment the balcony doors opened and there was John Sheppard. _It seems the universe is not without a sense of humor_, thought Elizabeth as John came to join her.

"Hey"

"Hey," she responded, favoring him with a quick glance before turning back to the ocean.

"So….how are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Really." John paused for a moment and then continued as if he had just decided something. "Look Elizabeth, I admit that sometimes I'm not good at talking about……feelings and stuff. But I'm probably the only person who can talk to you about all of this. So, if you need to talk, I'm here."

Elizabeth turned and saw the sincerity in his eyes. And he had used _that_ tone of voice, the one usually reserved for times when he was worried about her and the one that always drew her attention because it lacked any trace of sarcasm or flippancy.

"I don't know, it's just…." She trailed off, not really wanting to continue this conversation.

"You know you can't keep avoiding everyone."

"I haven't been avoiding everyone." She protested.

"So, that's why not only did you not eat lunch or dinner with me, but you didn't even eat them in the dining hall today. Because you're **not** avoiding people." His tone was still sincere but now held an air of determination.

"John, it's been a day. It just is taking me little time to process everything."

"Okay, I know…..I just want to make sure you're going to be okay." As he said this, John caught and held her gaze. Elizabeth couldn't quite identify the look that was now in his eyes.

"You know," she said in an attempt to lighten the mood, "I could really just blame you and Rodney for all of this."

"Really. I don't see quite how that works out." He responded with a slight smile.

"Well, the two of you have an annoying ability to get into trouble. And when you do, I get worried. You're my friends, I have a right to be worried! And Ronin is usually right there along with you both. And then I'm left to deal with your second in commands, which happen to be Lorne and Zelenka. And all of that apparently gives people _ideas_. So, you see, it really is all your fault." She finished with a triumphant smile.

"I think you've lost it." John said shaking his head.

"Well, the five of you are the people that I interact with the most, except for Carson and maybe Caldwell." Elizabeth paused and wrinkled her nose, "I'm glad I dodged that bullet, with Caldwell."

"I think Carson and Cadman are too much of a thing for that bet. My guess is Caldwell's too old." John replied.

"So what I'm saying is that I think maybe I can see a reason for the bets with the five of you….people. Although, a lot of the time I think of Rodney as a younger brother, a genius younger brother, but still it makes it kind of gross." Elizabeth continued to ramble, starting to realize that somehow John had gotten her to talk about the one part of the betting she had been avoiding thinking about. "Ronin, though, I haven't even known that long, so I'm not sure where that is coming from."

"Oh, I don't know. Beautiful, intelligent woman from another galaxy meets good-looking, rough around the edges fighter-type. It's kind of poetic or a movie plot or something. And he is very tall."

"Maybe you should date Ronin," Elizabeth said with a smirk.

"Ahh, no thank you. I'm just repeating what I've heard. Besides, my dance card in the betting pool is full." John elaborated in response to her questioning look, "The limit is five."

"Really. I think I should know your five."

"I'm not sure you need to know that."

"Hey, you know mine, so it's only fair." She pointed out.

"Yeah….so that would be Teyla, alien women, ascended women, Rodney…." John coughed and then stopped speaking as Elizabeth let out a snort of laughter at the last name. "That one did take a while to get used to."

"I'm sorry," She apologized, trying to not giggle. "I shouldn't have laughed, but Rodney on top of the ascended women was too much for me."

"I'm glad my discomfort is amusing to you." John teased. "That's alright. It's good to see you joking about all of this."

"Yeah, this has helped. I'm a little surprised, but it has." Elizabeth said with a wide smile, and things seemed to stop for a moment as they stood there grinning at each other.

"Oh wait." She continued, interrupting the moment. "That was only four."

"Four? Yes, but you already know about the bets on us. That's the fifth."

"Right. Wait a minute; did you say bets, as in a plural?"

"Yes, I thought you knew that there were multiple bets about us."

"What happened to the limit of five?"

"Five people, Elizabeth. There can be multiple bets on one….umm…couple."

"I didn't know that!" The relaxed mood of their conversation had almost vanished. _This is worse than I thought._

"Sorry, I guess I didn't make it clear." John had gotten a little quieter.

"Is there anything else I should know? I thought people would just be wagering if I was with anybody."

"Ummm….Well, actually only one of the bets is for whether or not we're dating or together or whatever." John looked a little uncomfortable as he said this.

"What! What else have they come up with? I thought these things had to be approved by a committee or something."

"I guess they do, but think about it. We're in another galaxy, in an alien city, and these people are very imaginative. So the rest of the bets are additional scenarios of…things"

"What are the bets?"

"Well, there are only like 4 or 5 more. And I don't really pay _that_ much attention…."

"John"

"All I'm saying is that there aren't as many as you seem to think there are, and I can't really remember them." John must have noticed the flat, no nonsense look she was giving him because he continued. "But since you seem to want to know, I think one is about a secret marriage on Earth. Another is about an accidental marriage by a ceremony on another world or ancient device or something. We fulfilled the one about an alien-induced kiss... Oh, making out in closets around the city. There may be a few more, but you get the idea."

It took Elizabeth a minute to absorb this new information. "Wow. I'm kind of surprised I'm not having a kid in one of these, what with all the marriage." She responded in a poor attempt at humor.

When John didn't laugh at her statement, "There's a bet that I'm _pregnant_. What the hell…." Elizabeth flung one hand out to the side, forgetting it was the one holding her coffee, spilling some on herself and throwing some in John's general direction.

"Hey, watch that. I forgot about that one. I think it was just added a couple weeks ago."

"When I had that flu, well if that isn't the most movie-clichéd…..I should refuse to drink wine at the next celebration just to see what everyone does." Elizabeth muttered, shaking her head and trying to wipe the coffee off her shirt.

A couple of minutes of silence passed, while Elizabeth and John stared out at the ocean, in their typical positions on the balcony. Elizabeth noticed it wasn't exactly the most comfortable silence they had shared. It was also starting to get a little cooler than she liked, so she decided it was time to go in.

"Well, this was a very…..enlightening conversation. I think I'm going to go hide in my room for a while now." Elizabeth said as she pushed away from the balcony and started toward the door.

She had taken a few steps when John turned and asked, "Are you still okay with things or are you going to avoid me again?"

Elizabeth turned back and sighed, "No, its fine. As long as this thing doesn't have anymore surprises, I think I'll be fine." She noticed that a look of relief spread over John's face.

"Lunch tomorrow?"

"Okay. Good night."

"Good night Elizabeth."


	6. The plan

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** All right, I was only going to post one chapter a day from here on out, but here is a second one for today. This chapter has the other half of my idea for the story (the gambling ring being the first part). Imagine my surprise when it took 5 chapters to get to it. Anyway, I'm interested to see what you guys think!

**Ch****a****p****ter 6- The Plan**

John determinedly walked to Elizabeth's office, trying to figure out the best way to convince her of his idea. True to her word, Elizabeth had joined him and Rodney at lunch yesterday. In fact, she was handling the news of their invented relationship, marriage, and kids by the Atlantis expedition rather well. They hadn't spent any time alone together since their talk on the balcnoy, but the fact that things didn't seem to be too awkward was a step in the right direction. He had decided to give her some space by purposely not joining her on their balcony this morning to exchange news of the day. It was their usual routine when he was in Atlantis for any significant amount of time, but he valued his friendship with her too much to push things. Although that was what he was heading to her office to do right now.

John stopped and leaned against Elizabeth's office door, watching as she steadily typed on her laptop. She was oblivious to his presence, so he had an opportunity to scare the crap out of her.

"Did you want to talk to me about something Colonel? Or are you going to hover there all day?" Elizabeth asked him without so much as looking up from her work.

_Okay, so she is not as unaware of me as I thought._ John didn't say anything as he crossed the distance from the doorway to her desk and proceeded to sit on the corner of it. It wasn't until Elizabeth finally stopped typing and looked up at him expectantly that he replied with his most charming smile, "Why, yes Doctor. I actually have a proposition for you."

"Really, and what would that be?" She questioned, settling back in her chair.

"Well, I think you should take the afternoon off and come to the mainland with me." He replied.

"John, I don't think-"

"And don't say that you don't have time because we both know that the reports for the SGC were sent to Daedalus just this morning."

"Yes, but-"

"And there isn't much going on in the city right now, so no one should need you for the next couple hours."

"While that might-"

"And you should have taken an afternoon off a couple of days ago, but you didn't, so really this break is overdue."

"Are going to let me talk? I was just going to ask why you were going to the mainland." Elizabeth said in a slightly exasperated voice.

"Okay, but after I answered that question, you _were_ going to use all of those excuses."

"Maybe" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him.

John gave her a look that clearly said he didn't believe her.

"Okay, I probably would have." She admitted.

"Teyla radioed this morning and put in an order for some medical supplies and a few other things. I thought I'd fly them over myself and visit the Athosians. You could use a break, so you're coming with me." He replied.

"John, while you have given me many reasons for going. I'm not sure I really can. I do have a lot of work to catch up on." Elizabeth said in a patient tone.

John however was not above a bit of treachery. Instead of continuing to argue, he merely touched his headset and said, "Sheppard to Beckett." He then threw a challenging look at Elizabeth who sat there with her mouth slightly open as if surprised by this turn of events.

"Okay, you've made your point. I'll go with you."

"Hey Carson, can you have those medical supplies brought to the jumper bay? I plan to leave in a half hour." John responded to Beckett over the radio.

"And I will see you in the jumper bay in half hour too." He said to Elizabeth, jumping off the corner of her desk and leaving before she could get a word in edgewise. He was quite satisfied with himself. Part one of the plan had gone well.

----------------------------------------------

"Ready?" John asked Elizabeth as she walked into the jumper bay, noticing that she had changed into more comfortable clothes and tennis shoes.

"Sure, let's go."

Once they were in the air Elizabeth turned to him and asked, "What is with you today?"

"Huh?" He responded, throwing a confused look at her.

"Did you get into Rodney's stash of espresso or something? You seem unusually enthusiastic and...hyper."

"I will have you know that I'm not any different today than any other day. But I did have a great idea."

"Okay" Elizabeth replied with a cautious tone.

"Actually, it was really your idea, I just modified it." John glanced over at Elizabeth and noticed a wary look in her eyes.

"Why am I suddenly worried?"

"That hurts, Elizabeth. If you're going to be that way, I won't tell you my idea."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Fine. What is your idea?"

John smirked, "How would you like to mess with the Atlantis gambling ring, and maybe get rid of all the bets on you and I?"

"And how would you suggest we accomplish this." Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at him.

"The bet-ees become the bet-tors. We fix a bet!"

"How…" He seemed to have shocked Elizabeth into speechlessness.

"We do things to push the stakes up on one of the bets on us. We bet on us. Pretend to fulfill the bet. And take the winnings. The shock of it all might be enough to discourage any future betting on either one of us." He explained.

There was a moment of silence and then, "Wow….Are you deranged?! Even if we could place a bet, to push up the stakes we would have to have a visible relationship. We could both get fired! ….And how was this my idea?"

"You made the comment about not drinking wine just to see what people would do, which got me thinking. And, there has to be enough harmless stuff that we can do to lead people to certain conclusions without actual evidence of anything to get us in trouble." He answered with a shrug.

Elizabeth seemed to consider this. "I'm not sure. It seems a little over the top."

"Come on. We'll stop feeling powerless about the whole situation. It will teach them all a lesson. And most importantly it will be fun." John proceeded to give Elizabeth his best puppy dog eyes. "Please."

"It would serve them right." She admitted with a small smile.

"That's the spirit. And we should have enough time in the next couple weeks to make significant progress, what with almost no gate travel and Rodney's team reconfiguring things." John grinned gleefully.

"Let me think about it for a while, okay"

"All right, we're here anyway," John agreed as he started to land the jumper. He hadn't missed the look of interest that had crossed Elizabeth's face. Part two of the plan seemed to be going well.


	7. The fake relationship

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for the reviews and comments. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this!

**Chapter 7****- The fake relationship**

"Okay," Elizabeth broke the easy silence she and John had been sharing on their late afternoon walk. After the supplies were unloaded they had eaten a late lunch with Ronon, Teyla, and a few other Atlantis crew members that were on the mainland for some R&R. They had then chatted with some of the Athosians, gotten a tour of improvements to the village, and now were idly strolling down one of the beaches near the settlement.

"Okay, what?" John stopped walking and looked at her with a confused expression. _Had she been talking while he was not been paying attention?_

"Okay, I agree with your harebrained idea."

"Oh," John gave Elizabeth an excited smile. "This is going to be awesome!"

"So how to we go about this? I assume you have some sort of plan."

"Yeah, kind of." Actually, most of his plan involved getting Elizabeth to agree to help him double cross the gambling ring. "I'm a little fuzzy on the details of how we are going to accomplish everything, but I thought you would have better ideas than me anyway."

"I would have better ideas? Believe me John, this is the first time that I have tried to deceive a gambling ring." Elizabeth replied in an amused tone.

"All right, well let's strategize then." John grabbed Elizabeth by the hand and pulled her over to a couple of rocks back a little way from the water. He then gestured for her to sit.

"Okay, first off, if this little "relationship" is going to work you need to give me your jacket to sit on so I don't get my butt all sandy." Elizabeth said playfully with air quotes.

"Women," John sighed while shrugging out of his jacket. "Here you go, _darling_."

After they had settled down on the ground leaning against a particularly large rock, John continued, "Okay, so my first goal was to get you to agree with me, which you have. I figured you coming with me to the mainland and taking a walk alone would get more gossip going. This all should set the stage nicely. I thought we would start with small things and work our way up."

"I'm impressed. Now we just need to figure out what small things to start with and how to build off of those."

There was a lull in the conversation as they both tried to think of ideas.

"I guess the easiest thing is to spend more time together." Elizabeth offered with a shrug.

"We could eat meals together. Except we already do that. Meeting for breakfast would be more out of the ordinary."

"Yeah... I know, you could bring me coffee in the afternoon."

"Is someone too lazy to leave her office for coffee now?" John teased. "Actually that's not a bad idea to start with."

"We don't have to map the whole thing out now. We can do that for a couple of days and see what happens." Elizabeth pointed out.

"Right. Breakfast and coffee it is then. That should give us enough time to think of other stuff. You'll probably be better at coming up with ideas than me."

"You keep saying that. Why?"

"I bet you've seen a lot more romantic comedies than I have." He looked over at Elizabeth and saw that she had a thoughtful expression. "What?"

"Something more logistical. Neither one of us is approved for Bridge Club, so how are we going to place a bet? And, what bet are we going to make?"

"Well, I was thinking we would shoot for the "we are together" bet and the "making out in closets" bet. Those seem like the ones we could fake the best." John then realized that he had neglected to tell her about the 'doing it in a puddlejumper' bet, and decided that was probably a good thing. Especially considering how they had gotten to the mainland today.

"Sounds good." Elizabeth nodded. "You should put the "we are together" bet for today, since that's sort of true. Make the other one for maybe a month from now. I think that would give us enough time."

"Okay, I'll just send an email from one of my men who I know is approved for Bridge club. Hawkins had to go back to Earth unexpectedly for a family emergency, so it makes sense that he would have to email his wager. Rodney has shown me enough about our email system that I can make it work."

"I could put the email in Chuck's personal data packet that was uploaded from the Daedalus this morning. Those aren't going to be sorted through until tomorrow." Elizabeth added.

"Good. Now we have a plan."

"Yes we do." John was pleased to see Elizabeth's eyes sparkle with mischief.


	8. Movie night

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** And the bet begins!

**Chapter 8****- Movie night**

"Coffee?" This comment was accompanied by the smell of fresh coffee permeating her office as John made his way over to her desk. Officially it was day 4 of the bet. She and John had eaten breakfast together for the last three mornings and this was the second time he had brought her coffee.

"Ahhh, coffee." She reached up immediately to grab the cup from him, noticing that he had brought his own. John held the mug just out of her reach with an amused expression.

"Want to take a break?" He asked, inclining his head toward the door.

"Sure." She replied and proceeded to follow him out of her office and to the balcony.

After the doors had swooshed closed and they were both leaning sideways against the rail, Elizabeth playfully asked, "So how do you think our little midday rendezvous is going? I assume that's why we're standing out here."

John was facing the door and tried to casually look around her into the control room to see if anyone was paying attention to them. "Yes, I think 'Operation Whispering Sweet Nothings' is a success so far."

Elizabeth started to laugh midway through a sip of coffee and ended up coughing.

"Ooooo, do I get to give you the Heimlich now?" He asked.

"You're absolutely awful." She shot back, noticing the suggestive grin that had accompanied his question. "Seriously, though, what have you found out?"

"Well, our bet was accepted, as you know, and the betting on us has increased. So far so good."

"Excellent. It's probably time to figure out what to do next."

"Yep. Have you thought of anything else we could do?"

Elizabeth actually had thought about this yesterday, going so far as to make a list of subtle clues that people were dating or interested in each other. Excessive eye contact, moments where time seemed to stop, invasion of personal space, unusual personal awareness- these were some of the things on her list that she realized she and John _already_ did. In fact, most of the things on her list they already did, so it appeared that the gambling ring did have a reason to pair them up. However, she wasn't going to reveal this to John.

"Elizabeth"

She looked back up at John, realizing that she had zoned out for a minute.

"Umm….I haven't thought of anything else subtle we could do. What about you?"

"Well, I was thinking you could come to movie night tonight. Sit next to me, we could share some popcorn…."

"Are you going to pretend to stretch and 'accidentally' put your arm around me? 'Cause I don't think anyone's tried that one on me since junior high." Elizabeth teased.

"I'll have you know that my moves are more sophisticated than that. Maybe if you play your cards right…" John started and was interrupted by her earpiece.

"Yes Rodney, I'll be right there." She responded after listening to McKay.

"I have to go John, but I'll meet you in the rec room."

"At eight. If you're not there at eight, I'm coming to get you." He said as she started for the door.

Elizabeth grinned at him by way of answer and rushed off to the science labs.

-------------------------------------------

"We're watching Braveheart." Elizabeth pointed out as the DVD menu came up on the screen. The lights were already dimmed and everyone was seated, although not that many people were at this movie night, just John's team and a few others.

"That's why you had to be here at eight. It's a long movie and we wanted to start on time." John replied. He was sitting next to her on the couch and, as promised, a bowl of popcorn was balanced between them.

"And we could start watching the movie if certain people would stop chatting." Rodney said, looking directly at them.

"John explained the history of the movie to Ronon and I already. He seemed to think I would like this Mel Gibson person," Teyla said, blatantly ignoring Rodney. She was curled up in a chair near Elizabeth.

"Why is that, Sheppard?" Ronon asked from his sprawled out place on the floor.

"I don't know. Women like Mel Gibson. Right Elizabeth?" John turned toward her, obviously expecting her to back him up.

"I guess so, but his accent in this movie is pretty awful sometimes. It is a good movie though and he is good in it." Elizabeth replied. She didn't think it would be very nice to point out the parallels between Ronon and William Wallace, which she suspected was the reason John had thought Teyla would like Mel Gibson.

"Ahem." They all turned to Rodney who was now very pointedly holding up the remote. "I'm starting the movie now, so shut up."

With that everyone settled down to enjoy the show. Occasionally someone would offer up a comment about the scene or a favorite part. Rodney was very adamant that they not rewatch any scenes or they would never get through the whole thing by a decent time.

Feeling utterly relaxed, Elizabeth snuggled further back into the couch, getting more comfortable.

"Enjoying the movie so far?" John quietly asked, leaning a bit closer so as not to disturb the others.

"Yes," she replied with a small smile. "I've always liked this one, the music especially is one of my favorites."

"Good," He said and Elizabeth got caught in his gaze for a moment until a rather noisy battle began that pulled their attention to the TV.

A little while later John felt a slight weight on his shoulder. A warm feeling spread through him as he glanced over and saw that Elizabeth's head was resting lightly against his shoulder. He really wasn't that surprised. He thought he had seen her eyes closed a while ago, but didn't think she would actually fall asleep. _She needs to relax like this more often_, he thought. Another good thing that could come from this bet would be to let her lighten up and have a bit more fun. Deciding that his co-conspirator needed her rest, he resolved to not wake her up himself.


	9. Insomnia and ice cream

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** This chapter came out of nowhere, but its probably one of my favorites. Let me know what you think!

**Chapter 9****- Insomnia and ice cream**

Elizabeth couldn't sleep. It was 2 AM and she couldn't sleep. And for once there wasn't any discernable reason why she shouldn't be able to sleep. Rodney's experiments were going amazingly well. The city was being explored with very few, if any incidents; at least no one had discovered any deadly viruses or technology. And when the only off-world teams were those visiting known allies and not Sheppard's team, there weren't any off-world incidents to deal with either.

John Sheppard. Movie night had gone very well. Granted she didn't remember half the movie because she had fallen asleep, but really she couldn't have planned it better for the purposes of the bet. John had been so adorable when he had to wake her up. She had felt someone lightly shaking her and then his voice had interrupted her strange dreams with, "Elizabeth, I think you might start drooling on me soon." He had apologized for waking her up, and walked her back to her room to make sure she didn't "fall asleep on the way." It had all been rather sweet.

Realizing that she had just mentally referred to her second in command as adorable and sweet gave her a start. This is what happens when I can't sleep, she thought, my mind starts wandering and rambling.

"I need ice cream," She declared to her empty room.

"Chocolate ice cream, if it can be found." She continued while putting on a robe over her pajamas.

Elizabeth left her room and headed to the mess hall, taking care to take a route that was furthest from the control room. She was wearing her cupcake pajamas. They were a Christmas present from her niece and very comfortable, but a little less dignified than she usually tried to be in front of the staff. Not that there were any people really out and about at the moment. In fact it was eerily quiet at this time of night, which was why she jumped and let out a shout when she heard, "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

She turned, gasping slightly for air. "John. God, you scared me. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk. Nice jammies." Elizabeth could see his eyes twinkle with amusement. "And you?"

"Operation Chocolate Ice Cream." She then realized that sometime in the last week she had slipped into John's habit of referring to anything and everything as an operation of some kind. "Care to join me?"

"Sure. Cupcake." He added with a smirk as they started off in the direction of the mess hall.

Elizabeth sighed, "I thought we had agreed not to do nicknames."

Nicknames had been John's latest suggestion for a "subtle" way to make people think they were together. First off, Elizabeth didn't think nicknames fell into the subtle category. She could conjure up images of the SGC interviewing her with something along the lines of, "Dr. Weir, we have reports that Colonel Sheppard refers to you as Lizzie Bear. Can you explain this?" Secondly, she was pretty sure that John was trying to find names to annoy her. Lizzie Bear was definitely the worst, but in the last few days since movie night he had also tried 'Sleeping Beauty,' 'scarlet sweetheart,' and 'my little coffee bean,' among others.

"Whatever you say, Sprinkles." He replied with a laugh.

"Keep talking like that Colonel Bedhead, and I won't be sharing any of my ice cream."

John chuckled, but refrained from responding to her comment, so they made it the rest of the way to the mess hall in silence.

"Aha!" Elizabeth exclaimed in triumph, pulling a container of Chocolate Brownie ice cream out of the freezer. "Sweet chocolate success…" She grabbed a clean spoon from the dishwasher, lifted herself up to sit on the kitchen counter, and proceeded to dig in.

"Oh, no." She drew the carton away from John, who had joined her on the counter and was now attempting to eat the ice cream.

"I told you no nicknames. So, no ice cream for you." She playfully said, while trying to elbow his arm out of the way.

"Please, 'Lizabeth." He said in a pitiful voice while flashing puppy dog eyes at her.

"Oh, not the eyes…. Fine, you can have some, but no more nicknames."

John flashed her a grin as she handed him the carton.

"What did you mean about the eyes?" He asked a minute later through a mouthful of ice cream.

Elizabeth paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth. _Oh__ crap__, I mentioned the thing about his eyes out loud._ "I don't think I should be held responsible for things I say late at night. I get tired and lose my ability to edit what I say." She replied, avoiding actually answering the question.

"Really"

Elizabeth looked over and saw that now he wore a very smug smile. "You're infuriating. You know you do the puppy dog eyes thing, so don't act so satisfied about it."

"Yes, but you just admitted it works on you," He pointed out.

She really wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so Elizabeth sat there for a moment while John grinned triumphantly at her. Before she could say anything else, one of the nurses entered the kitchen and jumped a little at the sight of them sitting on the counter.

"Oh, Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard, you scared me. I didn't think anyone was in here. Dr. MacKenzie wanted some tea and sent me to get it."

"I couldn't sleep. For some reason ice cream sounded good." Elizabeth stated with a shrug, attempting to explain why she and John were sitting in the kitchen very late at night in their pajamas eating ice cream out of the carton.

"I was wandering around, thought I'd try the ice cream thing too." John added.

"Well, good luck with the ice cream then. Good night." She said and left the kitchen with a new box of tea bags.

John waited for a minute after their visitor had left before he turned to her and said, "See, we don't have to plan these things. They just happen!"

"It does make it very convenient," She agreed and they lapsed into silence once again, wordlessly passing the ice cream carton back and forth.

After a while longer, Elizabeth put down her spoon. "I think I've had enough ice cream."

She slid off the counter and put her spoon in the sink with the other dirty dishes. "I'm going to bed. You coming with me? …..Wait, forget what that sounded like."

"I know what you meant. Come on, I'll walk you back." John replied in a light tone. "You know, you're more entertaining when you haven't slept."

"I'm glad you find me so amusing." She answered dryly.

"So, movie night tomorrow night? Or actually tonight, it's so late." Elizabeth asked once they were close to her quarters.

"Sure, we're starting the Lord of the Rings Trilogy."

"Night John." She said turning to her door.

"Sleep well, 'Lizabeth."


	10. John's mission

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for the reviews! I hope you guys like this one!

**Chapter 10****- John's mission**

John looked around the semicircular room as he entered. "Doesn't look like anything's in here," he pointed out to the other members of his team. This was what seemed like the hundredth room they had examined in the last three hours. Today they were exploring a western part of the city, a section that was widely thought to be deserted and house empty rooms, so the morning hadn't been exactly exciting.

He and his team, which today consisted of Dr. Ramirez and Lt. McDonald, fanned out to begin their search.

"Colonel, I have writing." Dr. Ramirez exclaimed pointing to the flat wall across from the doorway. "It started glowing when I got close."

Finally something interesting, John thought as he made his way over to join Ramirez and McDonald to study the writing.

"That's not English." McDonald pointed out.

"It's probably ancient."

"I don't know ancient. Do you know ancient?"

"Well, no. But since we are in the city of the ancients, I think it's safe to assume that it is ancient."

"I'll call it in. See if we can get someone to translate down here." John said, interrupting their rather pointless conversation.

"Hey Elizabeth, this is John." He noticed that they paused for a second when they realized that he had just radioed Elizabeth directly. He walked a little ways away from his team to continue the conversation.

"John, what's up. Please tell me that something's not wrong."

"Nothing's wrong. Why do you always assume the worst? We've got some writing on a wall down here that we think is ancient. Want to come translate?"

"I guess I could use a break. How much writing are we talking about?"

John wandered back to give the wall a closer look. "I'd say about a paragraph or two. It's hard to tell, you know, because of the whole wall thing."

Elizabeth chuckled, "Make sure to get some pictures taken. I'll start heading your way."

"And, I'll start heading your way; see you somewhere in the middle." He answered.

"All right guys, Dr. Weir is coming to translate. I'm going to go meet her. Take some pictures, and look at the rest of the room to make sure we didn't miss anything. I'll be right back." He nodded at Ramirez and McDonald and left the room.

As John walked to meet Elizabeth he thought about the past couple of weeks of the bet. It had all been rather fun. The betting on them had increased, thanks to the news of their ice cream night getting out and Elizabeth's continued presence at movie night. She did have a bad habit of falling asleep at movie night, usually on him, not that he minded all that much. In fact, it almost seemed natural given how well they knew each other.

If anything, they might need to cut back on the level of familiarity they showed now. He hadn't missed the look on Ramirez and McDonald's faces when he called Elizabeth directly, instead of going through the control room and asking for the linguist on call. He didn't want Caldwell intervening with claims of compromised judgment when he returned in two weeks, or the SGC for that matter. It would be annoying to say the least, especially when there was nothing to worry about.

However, when John saw Elizabeth at the end of the corridor, he found that he couldn't regret his decision to call her. It was good for her to get out of the office, and she did love to translate things. And if he was completely honest with himself, he had wanted to see her. His missions and her meetings the last couple of days had left them with practically no time to spend together.

"Hey, fancy meeting you here" He greeted her with a wide smile, noticing an excited light in her green eyes.

"Yeah, I just decided to take a walk, with my data pad….see what was going on." Elizabeth replied in an innocent tone. "So, how has your morning been?"

"Oh, you know. Empty rooms, and more empty rooms."

"Did one of these rooms perhaps have a lot of spider webs?"

"Yeah, how did you…" He stopped, surprised when she stepped closer and reached up to brush something out of his hair. Pulling her hand away she showed him a tangle of something that looked like a spider web. "Thought I got all those off me…."

Elizabeth laughed, "It must be the curse of your hair. Where's my wall to translate."

"Right this way. From the looks of the empty rooms, which by the way were all very similar and therefore boring, I'd say that we were right. This area probably was used to house personnel. There are bed slabs, bookshelves, closets. All very similar to our rooms really."

"Maybe my wall is just graffiti then."

"Now that would be embarrassing. I drag you all the way down here for ancient graffiti."

"That's okay. I haven't seen you that much in the last couple days anyway, so at least we have some time to chat." An affectionate look graced her face as she said this, and John couldn't help but feel pleased that she had also missed his company.

On the trek back to the room, they discussed various things, from news of the city to Elizabeth's brother's impending wedding. After they rounded the final corner, Elizabeth stopped sharply in a doorway, looking closely inside.

"Elizabeth, the not-graffiti room is this one." He stated, gesturing to an adjacent doorway.

"Are you sure, I thought I saw…." She stopped talking and walked through the doorway into the room.

John shook his head and followed. They had already checked this room, and there wasn't anything interesting in it. Once he was a few steps into the room, he was able to see Elizabeth. She was behind a stone partition in the back of the room staring at the wall. A wall that now held glowy blue writing in the center of it.

"Okay," He started to cross the distance of the room to join her. "That definitely wasn't-"

He was interrupted by a shuddering of the room. John saw Elizabeth turn toward him, but he was knocked off his feet a second later as the floor violently rocked. Dust and small rocks hailed down, making it virtually impossible to see anything. He tried to curl into a ball on the floor, covering his head for protection to wait out the rest of the quaking. The room finally stilled after what seemed like a long time, but really could only have been 30 seconds at most.

As the dust began to settle, John pushed himself up off the floor, wincing as his injured shoulder pulled. Wiping dust out of his eyes, he looked around for Elizabeth. He didn't see her. His eyes trailed over the room again, this time catching a scrap of red peeking out from underneath a pile of rubble. It looked like the dividing wall that Elizabeth had been standing next to had collapsed. Time seemed to stop for a moment when he realized what must have happened.


	11. John's mission, part 2

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Okay, I meant to get this up yesterday, but didn't have the time. And now on to the next chapter...

* * *

**Chapter 11- John's mission, part 2**

As the dust began to settle, John pushed himself up off the floor, wincing as his injured shoulder pulled. Wiping dust out of his eyes, he looked around for Elizabeth. He didn't see her. His eyes trailed over the room again, this time catching a scrap of red peeking out from underneath a pile of rubble. It looked like the dividing wall that Elizabeth had been standing next to had collapsed. Time seemed to stop for a moment when he realized what must have happened.

"Elizabeth!" He yelled, unable to move as his stomach lurched.

"_Oh shit, Elizabeth_" He continued in a panicked voice as he rushed over to the rubble. _If she was under there…._

"John" A voice rasped from behind him.

He turned to the sight of a very dusty Elizabeth sitting up and coughing. Relief coursed through him as he realized that she wasn't trapped under the rocks, but rather must have been thrown into the adjoining bathroom. He hurried over to her, dodging various rocks that now lay scattered about the floor.

"Thank god. I thought I saw you under that." He explained with obvious relief, gesturing to the large pile in the middle of the room.

Elizabeth was sitting and coughing a little. She squinted in the direction he had indicated. "I think that's my jacket."

"Are you hurt? You must have been thrown pretty far to end up in here."

"I don't think so. It happened really fast."

"Well, sit and rest for a minute."

He took a few steps out of the bathroom to radio the rest of his team. "McDonald, are you guys all right?"

"Yes, Colonel. Is Dr. Weir okay?"

"She seems to be fine. How did you…"

"Ramirez and I are standing outside the door of the room you're in. Or what used to be the door. We heard you yell."

"Used to be the door…" John turned toward the door and saw that it was blocked by rocks. He could just see the top of McDonald's head in a space at the top. "Oh, _great_."

"Ramirez is calling for a removal crew, but I think we might be able to unstack most of these ourselves."

"That's a good idea. I really don't want to stay here any longer than we need to until we know what caused that. We'll start clearing from this side."

He noticed then that Elizabeth hadn't joined him in the main room and walked back to the bathroom. "How are you doing?"

"Dusty, and my mouth tastes like dirt."

"You didn't get knocked out did you? Not feeling dizzy or anything?" He crouched down to look into her eyes and gently felt around her head to check for any tenderness. "Tell me if this hurts."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "No. I'm fine, just a little sore. Is the rest of your team okay?"

"The good news is that everyone is all right. The bad news is that we are temporarily stuck in this room. The doorway is partially blocked."

"Well, we should unblock it." Elizabeth took his offered hand to pull herself up.

"That's what I said."

He was surprised to find himself standing with an armful of Elizabeth an instant later.

"Are you sure you're not dizzy? Or did you just want to hug me again?" He joked, which he regretted when he looked down into her face and saw a grimace of pain. "Your old knee injury?"

"Ankle." She replied with a slightly breathless tone. "It gave out when I tried to stand."

John moved to drape one of her arms across his shoulders, keeping his other arm tightly around her waist. "No clearing of the doorway for you. You can sit and wait for the cavalry."

"Help me over to the writing. I might as well translate while I wait." They started to move slowly out of the bathroom and across the main room of the ancient apartment.

"Lt. McDonald" Elizabeth called out, acknowledging him with a wave when they passed the doorway.

John looked over her shoulder and saw McDonald's head through the now larger opening at the top of the doorway. It seemed the clearing was going rather quickly.

After Elizabeth was settled on the pile of rubble that he had earlier thought she was trapped under, John helped Ramirez and McDonald clear out enough of the doorway so they could leave the room. Luckily, there hadn't been very many large rocks, so they finished before the team got there.

"We're ready. Are you going to be okay to walk?" He asked Elizabeth as he moved over to help her stand. His teammates stayed out of the room, so they wouldn't all be trapped if something happened again.

"Yes. You are not carrying me." She stated with a flat look.

"Fine, but I am helping you walk, so lean on me." He instructed, grabbing both of her hands to pull her up next to him.

"You know, it's funny. We only have six working limbs between us." She said lightly as they resumed their previous position with Elizabeth secured at his side. "I know Carson has given you an okay on the collarbone, but it's not healed completely."

"Yeah, and he's not going to be happy when he finds out that I landed on it when I fell. Well, at least I don't have to hop all the way back to the control room…..Bunny." He added the annoying nickname quietly as they started for the door.

"Shut up, Colonel." Elizabeth retorted good-naturedly. Even though he couldn't see her, John could almost feel Elizabeth roll her eyes, and chuckled in response.

----------------------------------------

"So how does it feel to have your head examined?"

Elizabeth looked up from her data pad at the sound of John's voice. He was standing at the edge of the privacy curtain that separated her from the rest of the infirmary. John and the rest of the team had been cleared a half hour ago, but Carson had kept her around to ice her sprained ankle and check for a concussion.

"Just lovely." She replied.

"Any word from Carson yet?" John asked, moving over to stand next to the bed.

"He says soon. I think he's purposely keeping me here longer, just to make sure I stay off my ankle. You know if you hadn't said anything, I probably wouldn't have to have had that CAT scan." She pointed out, arching one eyebrow. Carson had seemed pleased with her condition, until John mentioned that she had ended up in the bathroom, several feet from her position previous to the incident. After that Carson had ordered the scan to make sure she hadn't further injured herself.

"What can I say, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." John sounded a little uncomfortable, and a dark look briefly crossed his face. Before Elizabeth could respond, however, he changed the subject. "So, did you figure the writing out?"

"I think so," She answered, putting the data pad down, and adjusting the ice bag on her ankle. "The pictures from the other room confirm my idea, anyway."

"So, what do we have then? Prophecy? Rain down rocks curse? Graffiti?" John asked, leaning against the edge of the bed so he could look at her data pad.

"I think it's just an announcement system. My guess is the next room is where the announcements were inputted to be relayed to that sector of living quarters. The message on the wall in our room was just a generic message of how to operate the system."

"Well that's rather boring. I can't believe that I almost got you squished by some rocks for an ancient bulletin board." That serious look reappeared on his face.

"Oh, you didn't get me squished." She replied lightly, trying to shrug off the incident.

"Yeah, but for a minute there I thought you were trapped, and…" John said quietly, letting the sentence hang while still gazing at the data pad.

"Hey," Elizabeth tried to get his attention by placing her hand over his where it rested on the bed rail. "But I wasn't trapped, and I really do feel fine." She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Good." John turned his head to look at her, the concerned expression still there. He turned his hand to gently hold hers. "And when Carson agrees with you, I'll feel a lot better."

Elizabeth was stunned for a moment. Obviously John was worried about her. That wasn't anything new. What was new was the way he was reacting. She knew he took the protection of people under his care very seriously, but it seemed that he was overreacting to this just a little bit. It was a small cave-in and they had been in Atlantis at the time. In light of everything they had been through, this was rather minor. Furthermore, even though the two of them had faced life threatening situations more times than she cared to remember, they never really acknowledged the consequences afterward. Or if one of them tried to, the other would just push it aside. For some reason, John seemed unable or unwilling to do it this time.

She wanted to explore this new side to the man she thought she knew so well, but as she opened her mouth to ask "Why are you taking this so hard?", the privacy curtain was drawn aside to reveal Carson with a chart in his hands.

John had dropped her hand when the curtain started to move and was now standing next to her bed looking expectantly at Carson.

Carson looked up from the chart at the two of them and said, "Your test results came back and everything looks fine. However, if you start to feel dizzy or nauseous you need to check in with me immediately. Understand."

"Yes, Carson" She said. John wasn't the only overprotective one on this base.

"I also want you to keep your ankle iced and elevated as much as possible for the rest of the day. You can work, but try to stay off of it." He added in a stern tone.

"Okay, thank you." She started to get off the bed, reaching for the single crutch Carson had instructed her to use for the next few days.

"See. No reason to worry." She threw a small smile at John, noticing that the tension had eased from his face.

"Yes, yes…" he replied a little sheepishly, gathering up her data pad and couple of ice bags. "Come on, let's get you back to your office."

* * *


	12. Stuck

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm glad you're still reading and enjoying the story. Here's the next chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 12- Stuck**

"What are you doing for the rest of the afternoon?"

Elizabeth turned away from the balcony railing to see John standing near the door.

"I didn't realize you were out here." It was rare for John to sneak up on her, usually she was more aware of her surroundings. Of course she had been thinking about John and this bet of theirs, so that's when he would show up. The man had unbelievable timing.

"Yeah, you were pretty zoned out." He replied, joining her at the edge of the balcony. "You didn't answer my question."

"Oh, the usual. Paperwork. No meetings, though. Why?"

"I have an idea for the bet. The end is approaching you know." John grinned.

After their adventure in Atlantis, which had ended with both of them in the infirmary, they had decided there should be a something to lead up to the end of the bet. Until now neither she nor John had an idea of what to do.

"Okay."

John seemed slightly surprised. "I thought it would take longer to convince you than that."

"Yeah, well I heard from the Daedalus this morning. They're going to be back a little sooner than we thought, in five days."

"Oh." His eyes widened a little. "But that means that-"

"Yeah," She replied with a nod.

It meant that the Daedalus would be back a couple days before the final day of their bet. While she and John weren't violating any rules, and Caldwell seemed to have backed off recently, they had decided it would still be better to have the last day of the bet when the Daedalus was gone and fewer personnel were around. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option.

"So what's the plan? And why is it going to take all afternoon?"

"Oh, not all afternoon, just a few hours." John said with a wave of one hand. Elizabeth could tell he was purposely not answering her question.

"Should I bring anything in particular?" She asked.

"No. Maybe something to snack on." He replied with a maddeningly innocent expression. Now he was clearly enjoying holding back information.

"You're not going to tell me what we're doing, are you?" She narrowed her eyes and attempted to pin him with a particularly stern look.

"Nope. It'll be more fun this way" John responded with a satisfied smirk. "I'll come and get you in an hour. Bring your data pad to keep up appearances." With that he turned to leave.

"Appearances of what." She asked to his retreating back.

"You'll see."

So, a little over an hour after their not very enlightening conversation Elizabeth found herself accompanying John to the jumper bay to supposedly 'look at something.' John still wouldn't tell her what was going on, wanting it to be a surprise for some reason. She was interrupted from her thoughts of ways to get the information out of John, some of which were decidedly unprofessional, by a sudden halt.

"Close your eyes."

"We're in a hallway. Why do I have to close my eyes?" If he wasn't going to tell her anything, she was going to be difficult.

"Please close your eyes." John pouted.

Elizabeth, once again regretting that John had found out his pathetic pleading looks actually worked on her, sighed and proceeded to close her eyes. "Okay, but if you leave me here I will assign you to be Rodney's guinea pig for ancient technology for a month."

"Someone is grouchy today," was the only response she got.

For a minute or two all she could hear were metallic sounds and a few scrapes. When instructed to she opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of John grinning at her.

"You're enjoying this way too much."

"Maybe. You know, it's a long walk to the jumper bay from here. We probably should take a transporter." He took her elbow and steered her to the transporter a little ways down the hallway.

"After you darling," he said with a small bow, gesturing for her to enter the transporter.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and stepped in. Thank god no one was around to see this.

After the doors closed, Sheppard pressed the necessary buttons to get them to the same level as the jumper bay. The transporter glided smoothly down for 2 floors before lurching to a stop.

She glanced over at John, "Please tell me that was supposed to happen?"

"Yep. It seems we're stuck in a transporter. Alone." He said with a particularly devilish smirk.

"Us. Alone. Why, we could get into all sorts of trouble." She flirted back.

John laughed. "So what do you think of Operation Otis?"

"I'm impressed. How long are we going to be in here?"

"Should be a couple of hours. I messed with a couple of power conduits that go to this transporter. The same thing happened to Beckett a couple of months ago by accident and it took McKay about that long to fix it."

"Nice. I probably should radio the control room to let them know we're in trouble." She said with exaggerated concern.

"By all means, we wouldn't want them to worry." John added in the same mock serious tone.

"Okay, here we go." Elizabeth tapped her headset. "Weir to control room."

"Yes, Dr. Weir."

"Hi Derek. I seem to be trapped in a transporter off of hallway 13D. Can you get it moving again." She motioned at John to stop silently laughing or she wasn't going to be able to make it through the call.

"We can try ma'am. It'll take just a minute to run a quick check. Are you by yourself?"

"No, Colonel Sheppard is here. We were on our way to the jumper bay."

"Okay. Well, I see you both on the life signs detector. It'll be just a minute on the scan."

"Understood." She cut off the radio connection and turned to John. "You laughing is so not helpful right now."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." He took a deep breath and seemed to compose himself.

"Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard." Derek had tapped into both of their radios. "I can't do anything about it from here, but I'm sending a team to check it out. They should be about 15 minutes."

"We'll be here." John said and then their radios cut out.

Elizabeth looked up at John. For some reason when her eyes met his she got an inescapable case of the giggles. That was all it took for John to start again, until both of them were doubled over with laughter.

"Why is this so funny?" Elizabeth asked, trying to calm down.

"I have no idea."

"Ow, it hurts. I need to sit." She added, brushing tears out of her eyes.

"Just try to breathe." John said helpfully, sitting down next to her on the transporter floor.

Elizabeth peered up at the ceiling, "There's not a surveillance camera in here is there?"

"Oh ye of little faith. I picked a transporter in a fairly deserted hallway with no camera. The most they have is a life signs detector."

"Why the jumper bay?" John seemed to have an answer for everything now and she was curious.

"Its four levels down. And I like the jumpers." John paused and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "And there may be a bet about us in the jumpers that I forgot to tell you about," he added cautiously.

"Huh." She really shouldn't be surprised anymore by the stuff that the expedition members came up with. John did love those puddlejumpers, so she could see the logic behind it.

"So what are we going to do in here for two hours?" Elizabeth asked, steering the conversation away from their invented love life.

"Well, we have your data pad and these." John held up a deck of cards and grinned. "I was thinking strip poker."

"I'm sure you were. Are you really that anxious to lose your clothes?"

"Who says you would win."

"I have an excellent poker face and can read you like book."

"Hmmm, I think someone needs to put their clothes where their mouth is." John challenged with a dangerous look in his eyes.

"Dr. Weir, Colonel Sheppard." Zelenka's voice came through their radios.

"Hi Radek. That was fast." Elizabeth responded, breaking from John's gaze.

"Yes, I was with a team in the next section over. I have good news and bad news."

"Okaaay, let's go for good news first," John said and then shrugged in response to her questioning look.

"The good news is the problem that caused the transporter to stop is fairly common. We think it is due to normal use. So, we won't have trouble fixing it to get you out."

"And the bad news," Elizabeth asked.

"It's going to take a while."

"How long is a while?"

"My best guess is twelve hours or so."

"What?" She said, wincing when she heard her voice screech slightly.

John closed his mouth, which had opened in surprise at Zelenka's announcement and mouthed "Ooops."

"Usually it would only take a couple of hours, but before we can start anything we have to reroute the power. Unfortunately we had a problem this morning in the next section and to fix it we had to alter the power configuration. We really can't reroute the power here until we're done there." Radek explained in a rush.

John silently said, "Sorry." He had a very apologetic look on his face.

"That's okay." She mouthed back.

"Elizabeth. Are you guys okay in there?"

"Yeah Radek," John responded. "Just a little surprised about spending the rest of the day and half of the night in here." It was going to be 3 or 4 in the morning before they were out.

"I suppose we could try to cut into the transporter from above." He offered. "Although that might permanently damage it."

"That's not necessary Radek. We'll be fine." Elizabeth replied in a firm voice. "Just let us know when you can start working on our little problem."

"I'm so sorry," John started once they had gotten off the radio. "I had no idea that-"

"Its fine," Elizabeth interrupted him. She really wasn't angry and passing the next 12 hours wouldn't be very enjoyable if John was apologizing to her every 10 minutes. "I didn't even know they were working in this section, so don't worry about it. Now, I think we both need to make some calls so that everything is in order while we're stuck in here."

After they had called the control room, Beckett, Lorne, Teyla, and failed to reach Rodney, she and John sat down to play cards. John let her pick the first of many games out of guilt.

* * *


	13. Still stuck

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for the reviews! I just couldn't resist having John's well thought out plan backfire. Oh, and as of this chapter we've caught up to the finished chapters I had when I started posting, so future chapters might come up a little slower. Let me know what you think!

* * *

**Chapter ****13- Still Stuck**

"Elizabeth, Sheppard. Are you guys still alive in there?" Rodney asked.

"Hey Rodney," Elizabeth radioed back. "We're fine. I'm totally kicking John's ass in Canasta." It was true. She had won 2 games and was way ahead in a third.

"Yeah, after this game, we're playing something else." John answered.

"Well, I've taken a look at your situation, in case Zelenka missed something, and he's right, there's really nothing we can do until his team is finished."

"Okay." Elizabeth replied, watching John as he tried to figure out which card to play next. He was cute when he was confused.

"Well you two are taking this awfully well."

"McKay, getting all worked up about being stuck in an elevator isn't going to do us any good," John pointed out.

"How did you guys end up in there anyway?"

"We were going to the jumper bay," Elizabeth said with a sigh. They had answered that question about 20 times.

"But we haven't even started the modifications to the jumper yet."

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow at John. "Modifications?"

"Yeah….I'll tell you about that later. I was going to visit the mainland and was going to try to convince Elizabeth to take the afternoon off and come with me." John answered with an uncertain look.

Elizabeth nodded. That was a good enough excuse.

"You took a really indirect route."

"I wanted to walk a bit, Rodney. Take a break." Elizabeth quickly replied, he was starting to get a little annoying.

"Well there are closer transporters."

"Yes, but…" John paused and Elizabeth motioned to her ankle. "…Elizabeth's ankle started bothering her. Look McKay we were going to save 20 questions until later tonight when we got tired of playing cards, so if you want to continue this then, that's fine."

"Sorry, just curious." Rodney sounded a little put out. "Make sure you check in with the control room every two hours. I have to get back to work."

"What has gotten into him?" John commented.

----------------------------------------

"Elizabeth, John."

"Hi Carson." Elizabeth replied.

"I thought I'd check on you before I called it a night. How are you doing in there?" Carson asked.

"We're fine. Although, we're starting to run out of games to play." John answered. "Do you have any twos?"

"No. Go Fish."

"I saw Rodney on the way here and he thinks it'll be about 4 more hours."

"Well, that would be right around 12 hours then." Elizabeth replied. According to her watch it was almost midnight. "Do you have any fives."

"No. Go Fish. By the way Carson, I'm kicking Elizabeth's ass in Go Fish." John offered.

"That's great. Well I'll leave you to your game then."

----------------------------------------

"I'm tired of staring at cards or the computer." Elizabeth said, stretching her arms above her head.

They had spent the last nine hours playing all the games on the data pad and the card games they could think of to play with two people. Recently it had been easy games that required little concentration, like Go Fish or the hour long game of War they had just finished.

"Me too," John slumped against one wall of the transporter and glanced over at her. She looked tired. Zelenka had just called and said they would start repairing the transporter within the hour. "Well, atleast we only have like two hours left."

"Yeah," She yawned, rubbing her eyes briefly.

"You could take a nap. You look a little tired." He offered. She never was truly caught up on sleep and if they were in here until 4 AM she would be really behind.

"John I am not leaving you awake, alone, while I sleep. Besides, I can't seem to get comfortable in here anymore." Elizabeth shifted, obviously trying to find a more comfortable position against the wall.

"I know a way to fix that." He got up from his place and crossed over to sit next to her. "Here, lean on me," he added, tilting his head to look at her.

A brief look of surprise flitted over Elizabeth's face before she shrugged and said "Okay." She settled herself on John's shoulder, seeming to tense with surprise when he moved an arm to wrap around her shoulders, so her head was tucked in against his chest. "Thanks." She said, relaxing against him.

"No problem." John himself was surprised. What he had meant to be a nice gesture that allowed Elizabeth some small comfort to sleep had ended with them almost cuddling in the transporter. Although, he argued with himself, maybe that's why he had said something, because he knew it would end up this way. John tried to ignore the warnings he felt and enjoy the moment. Who knew when he would have the opportunity to hold Elizabeth like this again.

"Hey John," Elizabeth broke the silence they had lapsed into. "If I fall asleep, will you wake me up before they get in here?"

"Sure." He replied, absently stroking Elizabeth's arm lightly with his thumb. He was still a little lost in thought when she continued.

"I don't….never mind."

This drew his full attention, as did her hesitant tone. "What were you going to say?" He asked quietly.

"Its silly, but I wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea. I mean, I know the whole reason we're stuck in here is to give them the wrong idea, but if they found us like this there would be a little more proof than necessary." Elizabeth lifted her head to look at him and rushed to add. "Not that this is proof of anything other than we're good friends and you have a very comfortable shoulder. But combined with everything else lately, certain people could use this against us, even though nothing is going on. Does that even make sense?"

"It does, I was thinking something along those lines too." He replied. Elizabeth smiled slightly at his response and settled back against him.

What didn't make as much sense to him was that they were actually having this conversation. He had decided to wake her up for the same reason, but wasn't going to tell her about it. Elizabeth must have been really tired if she thought she had to spell it out for him. They usually didn't need to talk about this kind of stuff. The other reason he hadn't planned on saying anything was the possibility that she could of have gotten the wrong idea. He didn't want Elizabeth to think that any of his actions with her over these last couple weeks were manufactured solely for the bet. He hadn't done anything that he hadn't wanted to do…..other than maybe spend 12 hours in a transporter.

"You really should try to get some sleep, I'll handle things on this end." He reassured her, while dimming the lights.

"Thanks, John," Elizabeth yawned.

John once again drifted back to his thoughts. Fifteen or so minutes later he felt Elizabeth move, and looking down, he thought he could see she was still awake.

"How are you not asleep?" He asked quietly, some amusement creeping into his voice. "Half the time you fall asleep on me at movie night."

"Yeah," Elizabeth answered without looking at him. "But there's not a movie right now, so I'm not sure that's the best comparison."

"Would you like me to start reciting The Princess Bride. I probably could get most of it right."

Elizabeth chuckled in response.

"You know," He continued. "I've been wondering why you fall asleep during movie night so much. Lack of sleep? Boring movies? Do I induce narcolepsy?"

"How about all of the above. I'm usually tired, it's a dark room, and the movies are not boring, but rather long."

"And I cause you to go to sleep."

"No, well not exactly." Elizabeth sighed with a little frustration.

John grinned. One thing he had recently found out about Elizabeth was that if she was tired she let things slip that normally she wouldn't. Of course she had to trust the person she was dealing with, or she would have been a very bad diplomat. In any case, he had learned some interesting things the last couple weeks in such situations.

"Okay, then what is my part of the sleeping."

"It's a little embarrassing." Elizabeth protested.

"I won't tell anyone else."

"Right." She snorted.

"And I won't tease you. I promise." After a beat of silence passed, he decided to let her off the hook, "you really don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Elizabeth sighed again, "I just….I feel safe around you. So I guess I relax and sleep."

"That's not embarrassing," He replied, pleased that she felt that at ease around him. "If anything it's a compliment of sorts."

"I guess it is."

"So feel safe and go to sleep."

"John." Her voice held an edge of warning.

"Right, no teasing." With that they both drifted back into silence.

* * *


	14. Indications

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Here is the next chapter. Please review!

* * *

**Chapter 14- Indications**

"You'd tell me if anything was going on, right." Rodney asked.

John looked up from his lunch to find Rodney staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. Elizabeth had a meeting, so they were alone at the table in the dining hall. The fairly early hour of their lunch meant that the dining hall was relatively empty with people scattered lightly throughout the room.

"Huh?" He replied, wondering what Rodney could possibly be referring to.

"You'd tell me if something was going on with you and….ah…..Elizabeth. Wouldn't you?"

John started coughing as he almost inhaled a mouthful of water instead of swallowing it. "Rodney, what in the hell are you talking about?" He managed to get out.

"I've just heard some things…"

"And you decided to bring this up in the middle of the mess hall," John urgently pointed out.

"Oh, nobody can hear us," Rodney replied, casually waving his fork. "You didn't answer my question."

"No, McKay. There is nothing going on between Elizabeth and me. Where did you get such a ridiculous idea?"

"Well, I heard a few things. That's nothing new really, but then I noticed that you guys have been spending a lot of time together. And you've managed to get Elizabeth to movie nights. And there was the thing with the transporter a few days ago."

Wow, Elizabeth and I must be doing a great job if we have Rodney, who is usually oblivious to these kinds of things, thinking something is going on, John thought.

"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you," John sighed. "Elizabeth and I are good friends. We've been spending more time together because I'm stuck on Atlantis. I'm also trying to get her to relax a little bit. That's all."

"Okay." Rodney said. He looked like he was going to say something else, but thought better of it and started in on a piece of pie.

"Are you sure Elizabeth knows that's all?" He quietly asked a few minutes later.

John sharply looked up from his jello and noticed Rodney couldn't quite meet his eyes, but rather seemed to be concentrating on swirling the remnants of the apple pie around the plate with his fork.

"What do you mean?"

"All I'm saying is that Elizabeth is one of my oldest and closest friends and I don't want to see her get hurt. So if there is a chance she could be misinterpreting things, then-" Rodney was now looking at him directly in the eye, as if measuring his response.

"Hold on there Rodney." He interrupted. "I would _not_ do that to her. You may have cast me as a Kirk, but I care about Elizabeth too much to see her get hurt too."

There was a pause as Rodney studied him for a minute. "Okay," he nodded. "I believe you."

"Well, I'm glad we cleared that up," John replied a little sarcastically.

---------------------------------

Elizabeth was in her room later that evening trying to read her book, but she couldn't concentrate. Her thoughts kept returning to a certain messy haired Colonel and the scheme he had somehow managed to talk her into 4 weeks ago. Now that they were here at the end she should be relieved that it was over, that she didn't have to mislead her staff (even if they deserved it), didn't have to worry that they were take things too far, but she instead found herself wishing that the end wasn't so near.

She really had enjoyed spending as much time with John as she had recently. He had been one of her closest friends on Atlantis before all of this, but now they were even closer. Mornings at breakfast, afternoons with coffee and evenings spent in each other's company had showed her another side of John Sheppard. She knew about his family, his childhood, and much of the blacked out parts of his file. In the transporter the other day he had even told her about his failed marriage. And he knew her better than anyone here as well. She knew that after the bet she would have to put the professional distance back up between them. They were acting too familiar with each other and it was noticeable. But the thought of drawing back from him, even a little, left her aching in a way. Before her mind could venture much farther down that particular path, however, there was a sound at her door. Getting up off the bed she opened the door to reveal John.

"Hey," She said, a little startled to see the subject of her thoughts at her door. "Come on in."

"You're not going to believe the conversation I had with Rodney today." He said once the door had closed.

"Oh?" She questioned and sat down on the bed, trying to clear her previous thoughts away so that she could concentrate on what John was saying.

"At lunch today he asked me about us." John revealed, clearly amused, as he perched on the corner of her bed.

"Really. If Rodney has noticed.."

"Then we've done a really good job." John finished for her.

"I guess we have." She replied.

"Hey, are you okay? You sound a little distracted." John asked with obvious concern.

"Oh, I'm fine." She reassured him and then decided to say something that was close to the truth. "I was just thinking about the end of the bet. I think we should go for the closet one. The other one is going to be too hard to pull off."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. In hindsight, I don't know how we thought we were going to do that."

"Yeah."

They both lapsed into silence as Elizabeth played with a corner of her comforter, not looking at John sitting next to her. I should just enjoy the time we have left with this and not worry about afterward.

"Elizabeth?" His hand stretched out to still hers where it was unraveling an edge of the blanket and gain her attention.

She looked up to see John's features shaded with a nervous expression. Not really thinking, she laced her fingers through his. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to say…" John paused and his hazel eyes seemed to bore into hers. "I've really had a lot of fun the past month…. And I couldn't have asked for a better partner in crime."

"I feel the same way." She answered quietly. John's eyes seemed to draw her in even further as silence stretched between them again, this time with an added undercurrent. Their hands were still joined, his fingers warm in between hers.

"I should go and let you get some sleep." John said a minute later. He stood up. "It's getting late."

"Yeah," She nodded, a little confused by his sudden departure.

"See you tomorrow morning for breakfast," Elizabeth quietly called out as he made his way to the door.

"Sure."

* * *


	15. The closet

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for all the reviews. I'm glad you're still reading! I've had this chapter mostly written for a long time, getting to it from the beginning just took a little while. Let me know what you think!

* * *

**Chapter 15- The Closet**

"Do you see him yet?" Elizabeth asked John in a loud whisper. They were currently hiding in the second storage closet in a small hallway off of the control room.

"Nope." John quietly called back from his position by the door. He was holding a life signs detector, waiting for Chuck to appear so they could get "caught" together in the closet. "You weren't kidding about no one using this hallway. We've been in here for 10 minutes and no one has walked by."

Today was the day they were fulfillig the bet. The Daedalus had arrived the morning after their late night discussion, so both she and John had been busy with meetings, settling new personnel, and reports from the SGC. They hadn't spent hardly any time alone, but despite the fact that John had so abruptly left her room, things were completely normal between them. Elizabeth was quite proud of her plan. There had been some office supplies sitting in her office from the Daedalus for the last couple of days. Chuck would be coming off shift soon, so she had asked him to put them away. He would have to put something in this storage room, so he could catch them in what looked like a compromising position.

"Someone's coming." John called out. He crouched down next to the door and pulled out a small mirror on a rod. Gently he opened the door and slid the mirror out to see who was at the first storage closet.

Elizabeth hadn't expected John to 'tech up' the mission with a life signs detector and other spy toys, but she wasn't really all that surprised that he had. It was more stealthy than listening at the door and trying to peek out without being noticed.

"It's him and he's alone." John stood up and walked back to join her in the middle of the room. "He's at the first closet, so I guess we should get ready."

Elizabeth nodded as her eyes were drawn in by his. "So, how do you think….." She started while glancing around the actually rather spacious closet.

"Well, we do have to get a little closer." John said in a low voice as he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled them together. Elizabeth then found herself walked backwards until her back barely brushed against one of the storage shelves. John rested his left hand on the shelf that was even with her shoulders. "Comfortable?" he asked.

"Yep," Elizabeth replied as she removed one of her hands that had been trapped between them around John's back to rest on his shoulder. "So now we wait," She continued and let her head rest on his shoulder, enjoying the feeling of being wrapped up by John Sheppard.

"Are you going to sleep on me again?" John asked a minute later. "Cause its really gonna be hard to pull this off if you're asleep."

Elizabeth raised her head and smiled at him, "No, I….." She trailed off as she saw that their faces were inches apart. Against her own better judgment her eyes dropped to his lips.

"You know," John started in a husky tone as his hand came from the shelf to brush a lock of hair behind her ears, "in order for this bet to not be a lie, we should probably kiss in here."

Elizabeth saw his eyes darken and her breath caught in her throat. She nodded, caught in his gaze. John's fingers stroked her cheekbone lightly and her eyes drifted closed at the sensation.

John's lips were soft on hers as he gently explored her mouth. The kiss was light and sweet, and was almost over, but then her hand moved from its place on his shoulder up into the soft hair on the back of his head. This simple movement provoked a small groan from John that sent a shiver through her. She could feel his arms tighten around her and the kiss deepened into something more serious and demanding. His hand found bare skin below her T-shirt, and his thumb started rubbing small circles on her back. It seemed all she could do was to press herself closer and get lost in the feeling. Just when breathing was becoming an issue, John started pressing small kisses down her jaw line and throat, threading a hand into her hair. Elizabeth's eyes fluttered open in time to see the storage room door open to reveal Chuck.

John must have sensed the change in her demeanor because a second later he froze and turned his head. Elizabeth could feel the heat in her face as she looked from a visibly shocked Chuck to John to the door. After quickly untangling herself from John, she swept one hand through her hair and left the closet. She could hear John leave behind her and take off down the hallway in the other direction. Elizabeth straightened her shirt and headed toward her office. _Well, __I guess __our__ plan worked……..__ a little too well._

* * *


	16. The aftermath

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Thanks for all the generous reviews. I'm glad you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it! And now the next part……with a special guest star point of view……

* * *

**Chapter 16- The Aftermath**

Elizabeth found herself a moment later standing just inside her office door, staring rather dumbly at the wall. Realizing that there were still a few people in the control room, she tried to school her features into some sort of a controlled expression and quickly left. She needed to hide for awhile to process just what had exactly happened and she sure as hell wasn't going to do that in her office.

After reaching her room, Elizabeth flopped down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. _This is bad. R__eally, __really bad. Actually that kiss was a__mazingly good, which is what mak__e__s this__ whole situation really, really bad._

Her mind spent the next several minutes jumping around from topic to topic- John, the kiss, getting caught by Chuck, needing chocolate, the fact that she could smell John's aftershave on her hair- before finally settling down enough to let her attempt to think her way through the situation. She was a diplomat, she should be able to think about this 'incident' more or less logically, charming flyboys be damned.

To say that Elizabeth was conflicted by what just happened would have been an understatement. She had realized a while ago that she was attracted to John, even before this whole business with the bet began. She had just consciously chosen not to act on those feelings realizing that they could never get involved without their jobs being called into question. Sometimes her feelings would come to the surface, usually when John was in trouble or hurt, but she would immediately set things back in order once the situation had been resolved. She just wasn't sure she could do that this time.

The bet with John had allowed her to relax her internal rules for the sake of teaching everyone a lesson. In doing so it seemed she had unwittingly dug herself in deeper. She was way past attraction now; she had fallen for her second in command.

_Oh shit_.

There really wasn't any way to deny it. The problem was she didn't know what to do about it. And until she figured out what to do about the 'incident' and all of the feelings it had dredged up, she didn't want to see John. Knowing that she was currently in the first place her would come looking for her, she went to the only place that she knew he wouldn't dare approach her about what had happened. Her office.

-------------------------------------------------

To deal with what had just happened, John went for a run. As he ran with little restraint through the rafters of Atlantis he tried to process what had possessed him to initiate the kiss. Well, he knew what had possessed him, Elizabeth and the way she had been looking at him. He had almost kissed her the other night in her room, had been seconds from actually going through with it before his brain kicked in, the shock of that truth spurring him to leave before he did something stupid. Although, if he was really honest with himself, he had been wanting to kiss her for even longer than that and today in the closet had seemed like the perfect excuse. A kiss simply to keep them honest for the sake of the bet that he could enjoy and they could write off as never really happening. It had started out that way. Then something took over and now everything was left exposed and open.

He knew how he felt about Elizabeth and from the way she reacted he thought he knew how she felt. But for the sake of the expedition and the security of both of their jobs he also knew she would want to take two steps back from where they were now, a thought that left him feeling hollow. He was closer to her than anyone in a long time, and he didn't want to lose that. And he was pretty sure he was in love with her.

That thought took him enough by surprise, that he stopped running. He knew it was true. He was in love with Elizabeth. _Damn_.

That fact made this whole situation much more complicated. To make matters worse, they still had to collect on the bet, which meant facing Chuck. The person that had caught them.

_I am so screwed._

_----------------------------------------------------_

After an hour of pacing in his room, Chuck came to a decision. He was surprised, to put it mildly, by what he had seen in the storage closet. Although Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Weir had been spending more time together lately and there had been some unusual occurrences with the two of them, he (unlike most of the betting population of Atlantis) didn't think anything was actually going on. Well, he was wrong, having personally witnessed the evidence.

What people usually didn't realize was that Chuck knew Dr. Weir quite well. He was a senior gate technician, having been with the original expedition to come through the gate. He was often scheduled to work in the control room during the day, so he had observed her in numerous situations, from meeting with various staff members to hearing that those staff members weren't returning to Atlantis. So as he watched her now in her office, he knew she was worried about what had happened. To someone else it might have looked like she was intently studying the report she currently had in front of her, but the way she was biting her lip suggested otherwise.

"Dr. Weir," Chuck said as he entered her office and shut the door.

Elizabeth looked up at him with a carefully blank expression, "What can I help you with?"

"I thought you should know that the post-it notes were moved from the first to the second storage closet." He watched as her face seemed to relax slightly.

"Thank you for the reminder." She drew in a breath. "Is there anything else you wanted to say."

"No ma'am." He then decided to give her his full opinion. "Just that it's been good to see you more relaxed these last few weeks, especially after all that's happened." With that he gave her a smile and turned to leave.

"Thank you, Chuck. Good night," Elizabeth finally fully met his eyes and she seemed more than relieved.

* * *


	17. The agreement

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Hey guys! We're getting close to the end here, just a few chapters left...I think. Please review!

* * *

**Chapter 17****- The agreement**

Elizabeth sighed, staring sleepily at her breakfast. It was the morning after the incident and despite having spent most of the night alternatively trying to come up with some idea of what to do, remembering in vivid detail what had happened, and then trying to forget, she still didn't have a solution. Although she recoginzed that mentally referring to their kiss as an incident did make it easier to think about, and she was less likely to start blushing.

She had woken up to her alarm this morning in a daze, showered, changed, and made her way to the mess hall before she realized what she was doing. If she wanted to avoid John, meeting him at their usual time for breakfast was not the way to go about it. But then again she had never been one to back down from a challenge. And her stomach had conspired against her, grumbling loadly at the smell of bacon, so here she was eating breakfast at their usual table.

A shadow fell over the table and when she looked up, there was John with a breakfast tray and an unidentifiable expression on his face.

"Good morning." She said, not really meeting his eyes and trying to ignore the nervousness that shot its way through her stomach.

John paused for a minute and sat down. "Good morning. I didn't think that…" He stopped talking and ran a hand nervously through his hair.

It had felt great to run her hand through that hair. _Oh, I can't deal with bad thoughts now_.

"Elizabeth?" John tilted his head at her.

"Yes, John." She said daring to fully look him in the eye.

A few seconds passed by as they just stared at each other, neither really knowing what to say.

"Look I-"

"I think-"

They had started talking at the same time. John gestured for her to begin with a slight smile.

She drew in a deep breath and began again. "I think-"

"Hey guys." Rodney interrupted her and sat down next to John. "Did you see that they have these little blueberry muffins for breakfast again. I love these things."

Elizabeth tore her eyes away from John to smile at Rodney in response. She asked him about one of his experiments to get him talking and therefore didn't have to participate in the conversation that much. She did notice that John kept glancing at her through much of McKay's ramblings. Overcome by the sudden urge to put off the conversation she knew they would have to have sooner or later, she started gathering up her dishes.

"Well, have a good day guys." She stood to take her tray, not daring to look at John as she left.

------------------------------------

John had finished eating and was listening to McKay and Ronon argue about something. Ronon and Teyla had joined them at breakfast a couple of minutes after Elizabeth left.

"What?" John asked, looking at Teyla who had been trying to get his attention.

"I asked if you have seen Elizabeth this morning. I'm supposed to give her a self-defense lesson later this morning and I thought she would be at breakfast."

"She was here earlier." He replied.

"I don't think she was feeling well." Rodney joined in. "She didn't eat all her bacon and she loves bacon."

"Well, I suppose I'll go look in her office then." Teyla said, standing to leave.

"That's probably where you'll find her," he answered flatly. _And __the __one place where I can't talk to her._ It wasn't lost on him that they had switched roles. Elizabeth was the one who wanted to talk about things, trying to draw him into conversation when a mission had gone badly or he was frustrated about something. Well, atleast he knew where she would be later this morning.

As the rest of his team got up to leave, his data pad beeped. He didn't usually carry the thing around with him, but he had a meeting with Caldwell this morning to go over new orders and details on the new miltary members of the expedition.

It looked like he had a new email from Chuck. About the bet. Hawkins still wasn't back from Earth, so John was receiving his email and then passing it along. And the email had gone out to the entire gambling ring. _This could be very bad…._

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Greetings Bridge Club members,

I am writing to tell you that after much consideration by the executive committee, we have declared a winner for the SW closet case. Although we don't have definitive proof, we feel there is enough evidence to draw conclusions consistent with the spirit of the predicted event. And from a logistical standpoint, there are enough bets on SW that getting rid of one of them is almost necessary at this point. Congrats to Lt. Hawkins! We will convene this evening at 8 with your intermediary (because you're still back on Earth) in conference room 3C to give you your reward.

The executive committee

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After quickly reading the email, John breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Chuck wasn't going to out them afterall.

------------------------------------

John was not stalking Elizabeth. He really wasn't, it was just that she could be slippery when she didn't want to be found. That was why he hadn't expected to find her at breakfast this morning. They obviously needed to talk about what had happened, the bet, and Chuck's apparent good will toward them. So after he somehow managed to miss her going to her self defense lesson with Teyla, he decided that there was no way he was going to miss her leaving the lesson. Hence the need to stand in the hallway outside the training room…just around a corner so she wouldn't see him right away. _I'm pathetic._

It was time for a new plan. He was going on the offensive.

John quietly stepped inside the training room. Elizabeth and Teyla were practicing some kind of martial arts. They really must have been concentrating on sparring as neither woman noticed him enter the room. A few seconds later, Teyla swept one of Elizabeth's legs out from underneath her and she fell to the mat, letting out an "Oof" as she hit.

"Okay, I should have seen that one coming," Elizabeth said, still lying on her back.

"I hate it when she does that to me." John commented, alerting them to his presence.

Both women looked sharply at him. Even though Elizabeth quickly turned away, he noticed her face was flushed from exercise. She looked beautiful.

"Did you need something, Colonel Sheppard," asked Teyla as she moved over to the side of the room to grab a towel.

"Actually, I needed to talk to Elizabeth about something." He answered with his best innocent face. "Did you guys have a good workout?"

"I think Elizabeth is progressing well. She was a bit distracted today, but she is learning quickly."

John grinned as Elizabeth faltered slightly at Teyla's comment. She moved over to a side bench and started to put on her shoes.

"Anyway, I will leave you two to your conversation," Teyla continued as she gathered up her bag to leave the room. "We'll practice again on Friday Elizabeth."

"Thanks, Teyla." Elizabeth responded with a brief smile, and went back to tying her shoes.

John walked to stand in front of the bench and crossed his arms. Elizabeth was concentrating way to much on tying her shoes.

"John, I really don't want to have this conversation right now." She said quietly, rubbing her forehead.

"I have gotten that impression." He replied with a smirk.

Elizabeth stood up. "It's just….I don't…….We….," She closed her eyes briefly and then looked him directly in the eye with an almost pleading expression, "Can this wait until after we've collected on the bet?"

John was surprised. He had rarely seen Elizabeth so flustered. And now he was worried that she seemed to be dreading their conversation so much. What was going on in that head of hers?

"Okay," He said, careful to keep a light tone of voice. "The meeting is tonight at 8 in conference room 3C."

Elizabeth nodded and gave him a relieved smile. "I'll be there."

"You know, we don't both have to-"

"Oh, I'll be there." Elizabeth insisted. He was happy to see a little sparkle return to her green eyes.

"Yeah, and I don't think Chuck is going to say anything." He added, hoping that indirectly referring to Operation Closet wouldn't send her into a tailspin. "Atleast that's the idea I got from the email."

"Yeah, I got that impression from him too, in sort of a round about way." Elizabeth gathered up her bag and headed to the door.

John decided to wait until later to ask about the specifics of her talk with Chuck. But as they left the room, he couldn't resist adding in a sarcastically thoughtful tone, "Maybe he deserves a raise."

* * *

**A/N-** Yes folks, somehow I have turned Chuck into a Sheppard/Weir 'shipper….. 


	18. The meeting

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note: **Hi guys! Glad to know you're still enjoying this crazy little story! Here's the next part...

* * *

**Chapter 18- The meeting**

"Ready?"

"I kind of think this is going to be fun," Elizabeth said with a smile. They were a hallway away from conference room 3C, getting ready to meet the gambling ring. John thought they would just be meeting with the executive committee to collect on the bet. After this little meeting Elizabeth knew she couldn't put off their talk much longer, but she was trying really hard not to think about that right now and enjoy the end of the bet and the sweet taste of victory. Thus far, John seemed willing to follow her lead.

"Okay, so I'll go in first. You wait like thirty seconds and then come in." He instructed and after seeing her nod in response, turned to leave.

"Wait." Elizabeth reached out and caught his arm. "We don't have more of a plan than that?"

John turned back to her with a dangerous look in his eyes. "I think at this point we can improvise, don't you?" He commented in a low voice.

Elizabeth quickly released his arm as her thoughts drifted to one possible interpretation of that statement. "Lead the way, Colonel." She said with a raised eyebrow.

John grinned at her, "Why thank you Doctor."

She followed a few paces behind him down the rest of the hallway, until they were just around the corner from the conference room door. John gave her a thumbs up and walked into the room.

Elizabeth crept closer to the corner to listen to what was going on.

"Hey, guys." She heard John say.

There was a lengthy pause and then, "Colonel Sheppard. Did you need something?" Chuck sounded confused.

Elizabeth decided this was a good time to make her entrance. "Hello, I'm not late am I?" She asked looking at her watch and taking a place standing next to John.

"Oh no Elizabeth, I'd say you're right on time," John smirked.

"Excellent." She grinned back at him. The both turned to look at the three members of the executive committee- Chuck, Ellen (a nurse), and Steven (a cook) - who all wore expressions of absolute shock.

"Hey, are those our winnings?" Sheppard pointed to a box on the table behind Steven after a moment of silence had passed.

This comment shook the organizers of the gambling ring out of their stupor.

"What did you…"

"Winnings?"

"Oh my god…" Chuck groaned, seeming to catch on more quickly than his conspirators.

"Is there any Dr. Pepper in there?" questioned Elizabeth, giving them a little time to recover from the shock. She craned her head to see into the box. "The Daedalus didn't bring any more back."

"I'm hoping for some beer." John said to her.

"How…how did you guys find out about this?" Ellen asked in a stunned voice.

"Oh, he knows." Chuck replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Sheppard found a list a while ago."

"What?" Steven exclaimed. "You never told us that."

"Well, it didn't seem necessary. I don't know when Dr. Weir found out though." Chuck glanced over at her and John, and the other two members of the committee winced a little.

"I can answer that." John raised his hand. "I told her. Well, she sort of drug it out of me."

"I can be very persuasive." Elizabeth added.

"So this has all been a set up?" Steven asked. "Wow…"

"For the last month or so, yes. John managed to talk me into it." Elizabeth answered remembering that day on the beach.

"Hey, it was your idea first." John teased.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and turned to face him. "It was not my idea, it was an off-hand comment that you ran with."

John chuckled and Elizabeth shook her head.

"Which reminds me," She turned back to the executive committee. "Just because some is throwing up does not mean they're pregnant. That only happens on TV or in the movies."

The members of the executive committee looked appropriately ashamed and there was another awkward pause.

"Really, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be." John commented, throwing her an amused look.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Elizabeth answered. "Things just sort of fell into place." John's eyes darkened a shade and she could feel herself blush a little at the implications of that last comment.

"What do you want us to do now?" Chuck interrupted their conversation, alternatively looking at them both.

"I for one want to know if there's beer in here." John walked over to the box and looked through it. "Damn." He then drew out two cans of soda, made his way back to Elizabeth's side, and handed her a Dr. Pepper.

Elizabeth smiled at him. "Thanks." After making the three expedition members sweat it a little longer while she opened the can and took a drink, she continued, "I don't think there's any reason to shut your little operation down. It seems to me that everyone here deserves some kind of outlet from the insanity we regularly experience. However, I would greatly appreciate it if you would get rid of all the bets involving either John or I and scale back the whole thing a little."

Chuck, Ellen, and Steven looked extremely relieved.

"We will definitely do that." Ellen responded quickly.

"All right then, I think our work here is done." John said and walked over to pick up the box of their winnings. "Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth nodded at him. "Have a nice night guys." She added with a smirk and followed John out of the room.

Before they were out of earshot she heard Steven say, "Man, they're good."

* * *


	19. The talk

**Pairing:** Sparky, with mentions of Teyla/Ronon

**Spoilers:** This takes place in season 3 after 'McKay and Mrs. Miller' so spoilers up to that point.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, if I did things would be going much differently this season

**Summary:** Elizabeth discovers just how creative betting is in Atlantis, which leads to some surprising results.

**Author's note:** Well, guys this is the one you've all been waiting for! Hopefully I've done it justice. Let me know what you think!!

* * *

**Chapter 19- The talk**

Elizabeth continued to follow John after they left the conference room. She realized that now would be as good of time as any to have their talk. Putting it off any longer would really only make things more uncomfortable between them. She was trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach when John stopped suddenly in the hallway and turned to face her. He gave her a questioning look and she nodded. Without speaking they went through the closest doorway, out onto a balcony.

She followed John to a far corner of the balcony so they were out of sight of anyone that may be passing by and watched as he sat down the box of their winnings on a nearby bench. Suddenly she realized that this was the balcony she had found John on all those weeks ago to ask about the bets. Who would have predicted then what had happened.

They stood there for a moment, leaning sideways against the balcony. Although she was facing John, Elizabeth couldn't quite meet his eyes. She didn't want to see the look on his face right now.

"Radio." John said, stretching out his hand.

"What?" She glanced up at him.

"You may have noticed that we tend to get interrupted quite a lot when we attempt to have any sort of important conversation. So, we are both going to take off our radios."

"Okay," she agreed, and handed over her earpiece. Now that she had started looking at him, it seemed that she couldn't stop. John placed their radios on the bench and their conversation lapsed into silence.

"John, we can't" Elizabeth said in a low voice, shattering the quiet moments later. She watched as a flash of pain crossed his face, but he remained silent. Surprised by this lack of reaction, she explained, "It's completely against the rules. The IOA would find out, and when they did….….Atlantis can't afford to have you or I shipped back to Earth. I've thought about it and tried to figure a way around it, but it's just not possible."

"Can I say something now?" John asked with a gleam in his eyes.

Elizabeth nodded and found herself pulled into a bone melting kiss that was over too quickly. When she opened her eyes, John was giving her a soft smile.

"I don't think it's really against the rules," he said, reaching down to stroke her cheek lightly.

"How so?" She ducked her head, not quite able to handle his gaze.

"Well, it's true that you're my boss, but you're not military. And in military situations, I'm kind of your boss. So I figure it all evens out."

John leaned in and Elizabeth got lost in another kiss that left her breathless.

"And, you said yourself that Atlantis can't afford to lose us." John continued with a bigger grin, this time twirling one of her curls gently around his finger. "I think that after all that's happened recently the IOA realizes that."

Elizabeth felt John start to move again, and quickly maneuvered herself out of his arms. She couldn't think straight when she was that close to him.

"That's the idea." John responded with a smirk, and Elizabeth realized that she had said that last part out loud. "It's my own special negotiating technique."

She took another step away from him and drew in a deep breath. "But we can't know any of that- about the IOA and how they view the rules- for sure."

"Look Elizabeth, there's only going to be a problem if we let _us_ get in the way of our jobs. That is not going to happen. And by the time anyone finds out, we'll have proven to them it's not a problem."

"What if it is a problem though?" She had lost her composure and was rambling while gesturing wildly with one hand. "Once we start this, I don't think I'll be able to walk away. Just preparing myself for this conversation over the last day has been horrible. And you stay over there." She added when he took a step closer.

"In my opinion, having you is enough motivation to make sure it's not a problem." His voice was deadly serious and then softened a bit. "This last month has been amazing and I want that all the time. So the only question is what do you want?"

Elizabeth couldn't tear her eyes away from him. He had never looked at her like that before, his hazel eyes a swirling sea of emotion and yet stripped bare.

"I want you." She said quietly.

Elizabeth would never forget the expression on John's face when she uttered those three words. He took two steps, pulled her toward him, and gave her lingering kiss, soft but somehow more intense than anything else they had shared.

"Thank god, because I was running out of ways to convince you." He said in a voice rough with emotion and relief a moment later.

"Oh, I think your special negotiating technique is very effective," she commented once she gained the power of speech again. "I may need to learn that one."

"I'm a very good teacher." He flirted back with a particularly suggestive smirk, leaning forward to steal another quick kiss. "But you can't use it on anyone else."

"Hmmm…..okay." Elizabeth replied, leaning forward to snuggle in against John's chest as he ran a hand through her hair. "You know, that bet was kind of like training. Although, we're going to have to keep a low profile on this rather than try to stir up gossip."

"Operation Secret Rendezvous."

"Yeah." She lifted her head to grin at him. They had to make this work.

"Which has gotten me thinking-"

"Why am I suddenly worried." She teased.

"Hey! My last idea turned out great." John protested.

"True."

"As I was saying," John grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. "Did you know that the puddlejumper is a fascinating machine? And I think I need to show you more of its internal features."

"But John, whatever are we going to do in the back of a puddlejumper?"

**The End**

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**A/N- That's all folks, no matter how much I dislike leaving a story with an odd number of chapters. Although it is a prime number, so Zelenka would be proud. Anyway, I just wanted to thank again everyone who reviewed. I really really appreciated it. It made posting my first story a lot less scary, and it provided a much needed incentive to get these last few chapters completed and out, which for some reason were hard to write at times. Go Team Sparky!!

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